


The Dark Trail

by SomeoneImSure



Series: Experimental Stories [1]
Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Best of Before the Stars, F/M, Gen, Hiatus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-05
Updated: 2014-06-05
Packaged: 2018-02-03 11:59:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 35,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1743914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeoneImSure/pseuds/SomeoneImSure
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the Shadowlands. Much has happened to the cats of the Cabin, and yet more is going to happen to them... and one of their number is about to die.</p><p>[[A very old piece of work I intend to rewrite. OC centric]]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1

It had been bothering her for a few moons now.

Her abilities as a medicine cat had grown beyond that of even her mother, which was unsettling to the young she-cat. She never wanted to think of herself above her mother and she didn't know what to think now that she had basically become mother to every cat in their little family, including her own mother. She was the one out there, searching for herbs for remedies that her mother had taught her and deducing through experiments which herb caused which symptoms.

The long and difficult process had begun without Dapples enough knowing it, and it did not dare to stop. She had, in all sense of the word, become enlightened, and she was glad of it. Now she could take care of everybody, and make sure none of them fell victim to the same unknown illness which had taken her sister.

It had been a dream she harbored for many moons - ten almost - and she never spilled her ambition to anyone. She kept it locked up inside herself, away from prying eyes and ears. Until the day she had discovered the Moon Clearing and she realized she could to talk with The Cat of Many Stars.

The curious phenomenon which had first led to her fleeing that place never happened again; she remained in complete control over her own body the every time she was there, speaking with The Cat. She held so many countless and long discussion, often ending with very little more knowledge than what she started with and often with many more questions that she could not properly put into words.

The Cat spoke of many place; of fire and ice, of forests and mountains, of rivers and shadows, of thunder and wind. Much of what she said was abstract, as if they served no real purpose in what they were talking about, and only when the Cat told stories did Dapples truly understand how all those abstract ideals came to play. StarClan, the Place of No Stars, the Valley of the Dead, the Moon Tree, and much, much more, and it all sounded more from a faerie tale and not something more down to mortal level.

Dapples found herself padding down the long and black tunnels to the Clearing once more, brimming with questions, only half of which could possibly get an abstract answer to. One of them might get her another story, and Dapples was always after another story, even one that didn't make a lick of sense.

Her paws sank into the moondust as she soundlessly slipped out of the tunnel and into the moonlit Clearing. The three young cats were already waiting for her, while the larger one seemed to be late. Dapples dropped into the ground, grateful that the sweet bouncy grass felt comfortable beneath her. None of the three cats gave her much notice, instead sharing tongues amongst themselves as all four of them waited out the arrival of The Cat.

A short pause turned into a long moment, causing Dapples to shift uncomfortably and lick her paw, trying not to stare at the other young cats. Their misty pelts showed pale white in the moonlight, but they otherwise disappeared into the backdrop of the dip. Dapples understood who they were, even though she had never caught their names; the loss of Silver's three kits and the arrival of these cats in the land of the dead could only be more than mere coincidence. They looked like her brother's mate did, silvery-spotted and grey, except for one which sported his father's stripes and a darker brownish coat.

Suddenly, in a burst of white and silver, the misty form of the Cat of Many Stars landed at the center of the clearing, curling her wispy tail around her paws. Galaxies swirled in the center of her being, each one a rosy color, reflecting in the depths of her eyes. Her arrival immediately spawned a reaction from Dapples and the three young cats, causing all of them to move forward and sit around the Cat.

The rose starred cat turned her eyes on Dapples, their depths pooling with knowledge unmatched by any cat, dead or living. "You have questions," she meowed, more a statement than a question. She gestured with her tail to the three young cats, as if telling them to back up with that one gesture. Suddenly, Dapples was alone with her, the other three having disappeared from the Clearing.

"Speak," she said, "we are alone now."

Dapples nodded to herself, flicking her tail at the Cat, silently asking for a moment to collect her thoughts. The Cat blinked but remained silent, watching the living cat expressionlessly. After a moment, Dapples finally looked up.

"Why are you still here?"

It was a question which she had asked three times before, but each time she asked, she searched for a different meaning. The Cat of Many Stars knew this, and thus remained quiet, silently asking her to specify. This silent communication always guided their discussion, and it reflected just how deeply these two cats knew each other, even though one of them wasn't entirely aware of it.

"Why have you not gone where _all_ the spirit cats go?"

The Cat paused and considered this, her tail flicking curiously beside her. "You mean," she spoke, "why have I not faded?"

Dapples nodded and waited patiently, tail tip twitching. The dead cat turned her head around, glancing at the moonlight bathed clearing.

"There are two kinds of death," she said. "Death by claws or blade - what we might consider the normal way - and then there is death by _Forgetting_." She gestured with a sweep her tail behind her. "Death by Forgetting is when we fade into the next life, or disappear forever into oblivion. Sometimes, before we are Forgotten, we are reborn."

Dapples flicked her ears. "And you know this to be true how?"

The Cat flicked her tail in annoyance, as if she had gone over this before. "We can see into the future."

"Ah," came the calico's intelligent response.

"Is that all the questions you have for me today, Spots?" The Cat of Many Stars asked her, amused and exasperated.

"No, no," the living cat assured her. "Just give me a moment to think..."

…

Life in the so-called Clan was nothing like his old life in the Red-house. For one, he never had to deal with the grabby Two-leg lifting him off the ground and shoving unwanted herbs into his bowl and poking him with metal sticks that made him either sick or wobbly. He clawed at the dirt, forcing his mind to return to the world around him. His black-and-white pelt rippled as he stood and moved, hard and lean muscles working smoothly beneath his young pelt. Raven frowned as he approached Mother's den. He could stop himself from thinking of Destiny that way - huh, Destiny, he rarely called her that anymore. It was mostly just Mom or Ma'am.

The den was silent except for the familiar sounds of Blaze and Lion talking quietly. A pang of longing hit Raven as he approached, forcing him to turn away and walk around the place. He wanted that kind of life for himself - he would admit that to himself - but he could not bring himself to wonder just who he might have that life with. Destiny was too old, Hearth was too quiet, and Dapples was just...

Raven didn't know what to think of Dapples. The she-cat often kept to herself or Destiny, remaining distant and mysterious, on the edge of most sharing-tongues and with her ears perked into the conversations. From what little he knew of Dapples, he liked her but, beyond some shared hunting patrols, their relationship had - oddly enough - not developed beyond that.

Raven ducked his head down as he moved away from the den. Mother wouldn't be there, ruining whatever moment Blaze and Lion were having. The black tom padded away, toward the moondust tunnel entrance, pausing to sniff uncertainly at the tasteless wind which blew lightly out of the tunnel. He forced himself to stop a shudder and he flicked his tail to shake it away. Frowning and taking a calming breath, he stalked forward and into the darkness.

A part of him felt as if he had just merged with the shadows, become a part of it, like a star hooked up into the night sky. He moved smoothly, walking with grace and growing fearlessness. He flicked his ears back slightly, opening his mouth slightly and taking in a deep drought of air. Beneath the tasteless air, he could swear that he detected the sweet smell of Silver and Dapples, and some-cat else. In the darkness, shapes danced across the surface of the cave. Cat shapes, clawing at the air and swinging their paws in battle. A blast of ghastly flame began to creep across his vision, swallowing his vision whole, and he merely kept walking, absentmindedly, sinking complacently into the wild visual ride. The fires danced, transforming into a cat, a blazing cat that roared like a lion and chased the darkness across the land. Three stars trailed behind him, gold and white and grey. Then, the darkness suddenly peeled away beneath the sudden appearance of a white beam of light.

The great white tree, covered in moonlight, seemed to grow more and more surreal every time Raven looked at it. After the strangeness of the tunnel, it felt almost natural to slip out onto the surreal plane and pad up to the base of the tree. He noticed, almost too late, a white and brown she-cat resting at the base of the tree, her nose pressed against the pale bark. He stopped, tail twitching uncertainly as he determined what to do. Finally, he padded softly forward, taking up a crouch beside the queen.

"Destiny...?" he meowed.

When she remained unmoving and quiet, he crouched down and became quiet, waiting patiently for the old cat to wake up. A few long hours passed and Raven remained seated, his eyes looking away from the sleeping queen and up at the strange scenery of the tree. The moon reflected in his iris, and Raven felt a sudden urge to curl up beneath the tree and join Destiny with his nose pressed up against the tree. He blinked and the feeling vanished, interrupted by the sudden gasp of the old she-cat as she woke from her trance. She shivered, pale blue eyes wide as her head jerked rapidly around, finally falling on Raven.

Uncertain, Raven meowed softly at her. "Destiny?"

She blinked and composed herself, dropping down beside him and tucking her paws beneath her, tail curling around herself. "Raven?" she asked, quietly, curiosity in her pale blue eyes.

Raven frowned, thoughts swirling about in his head, but he decided to deal with what was more recent. "What were you doing just then, ma'am?"

Destiny stared at him for a moment, before looking at the tree, as if it were some mysterious puzzle she could not yet figure out. "...I'm not sure," she admitted, her ears dropping.

She stared at the ground, consumed by her thoughts and forgetting that Raven was there. The black-and-white tom remained quiet, not feeling the need to interrupt her thoughts. He knew that her thoughts were important to her and that sometimes some amazing things happened when a cat thought too much and too long. Thoughts were precious to Raven, just as he assumed they were precious to Destiny. So, he remained quiet, patiently waiting out her thoughts and only moving when he thought she had forgotten his presence. He put a paw forward, gently touching her paw and drawing her from her thoughts with his silent action. She looked into his eyes, reading his unspoken curiosity.

"Yes, Raven?"

He opened his mouth to speak and shut it, before he opened it again with a sigh. "I don't want to intrude, but it seemed like you were dreaming something fierce. Nightmare?"

"A nightmare?" she meowed, surprised, eyes growing distant. "Yes, I suppose you can call it a nightmare."

The black and white tom frowned, gazing at the queen out of the corner of his eye. He did not want to seem rude and stare at her, but the expression of loss and longing seemed too important to miss. Instead, he decided to draw the topic of discussion away from her dreams.

"Why are you still here?" he meowed suddenly, aware of his voice sounding like a whisper, as the moondust absorbed the sound and kept their conversation quiet.

Destiny's ears flicked, but she gave no other indication of taking note of his question. She blinked owlishly and stared at the tree for so long that Raven thought her old mind had already grown distant. He was preparing to leave when she spoke up.

"Be specific, Raven, that question could mean a hundred different things, some of which you don't want to know the answer to."

He frowned at that response, before thinking it over. "Why did you stay here, if you dislike the rain so much?"

The old queen remained still, thinking it over and wondering just exactly how to respond. She barely shifted as she contemplated, and when she finally spoke, her voice was quiet. "I was not expecting you kits to come," she admitted, much to Raven's confusion.

"I don't understand."

She paused, before slowly looking at him, her eyes having acquired that familiar soft feeling which often happened just before she was about to tell a long story. "It began a long time ago, after a harsh rain storm had filled up the lean-to, and had taken from me my second daughter." She paused, and Raven did not have to think hard on what she meant by the lean-to. Destiny's odd behavior around Silver after the incident at the old lean-to told him enough.

"She drowned, didn't she?" he asked.

Destiny face contorted slight, and she gave a weak nod. "My beautiful kit..." she meowed, pained. "A mottled, rosy she-cat, like Lion and Tiger combined, with eyes as rosy as her beautiful coat." Destiny's lips quivered and she squeezed her eyes shut. "She would have made a wonderful daughter, and a loving sister to Dapples, I'm sure."

Raven could not bring himself to break the wall of grief which wrapped around Destiny in that moment. He realized that this dead kit was probably why Destiny had reacted so badly to Silver's kits' death. He waited patiently, tail curled around his paws, giving the old cat time to continue.

Destiny's lip quivered, but she found the strength to continue. "I knew that the only way my kits could survive the stormy weather was to bring them somewhere safer. Once the storm was about to life, I took the time to leave my kits." She winced, choking back a pained mewl. "I came back after having scouted out the cabin and catching a rabbit. I fed them some of the hard food, along with my milk, and once I had enough strength, I convinced them to leave the lean-to with me. Snow fell all around us, coating the world in a blanket of white, while I lead my kits through the territory to here. I fed them some old kittypet food, mush with some semi-clean water, and after they feel asleep together, curled up in the middle of the cabin, I left to survey my new surroundings.

"I found the den first and dragged them there, those poor half-asleep things! It was warm on the soft chalky white powder and I enjoyed it beneath my paws. I found some moss to put around them, and then left them to look around my territory more. That's when I found the tunnel.

"As first, I didn't know what to think of it, but-" And here she paused, her lips closed and she remained silent for a very long and unnecessary moment, before continuing; "-I felt compelled to go inside."

Raven knew instantly that there was more to it than that, but he did not pry. He sat back and waited for her to continue.

"The darkness was like nothing I had ever seen before. Each footstep felt as if I would fall into the nothingness around me, only to be halted by the soft moondust..." -Raven could feel and hear the wonder in Destiny's voice and it reminded him of his own first journey through the tunnels- "It felt soft underpaw, like the gentle but strong wind which can carry you if you don't keep your body and claws near the ground. I found it exciting and curious, and I always loved a good curiosity." She smiled at the memories, purring as she flicked her tail around her. "And it was here that I arrived."

Raven used her pause to glance around at the tree and the snowy ground around them, that strange warm soft snow. Raven returned his gaze to the old she-cat, waiting for her to continue.

"I was entranced by the tree," she said, "and I felt compelled to press my nose to the trunk here. In an instant, I saw only darkness. The nothingness of the sky at night, when the clouds part, had engulfed me totally, suspending me over a deep dark pit and yet carrying me aloft so that I did not fall. I saw lights born of fires, appear in the sky, of starry and stray cats that raced through the darkness, never being led, never leading, but a group nonetheless. I was pulled by this tide, and I found myself joining them, racing to whatever destiny awaited them.

"I saw fire, death, and life, and so many other things which you cannot possibly imagine. I saw my future, the future of my young kits, and then some, and I knew and understood with great certainty a lot of things which some old cat had tried and failed to teach me." She sighed, looking at her paws in sadness. "As I came to this conclusion, the darkness shifted and I found myself on a stary landscape, made up partially in mist. Among the cats there was a kit, barely older than my own, who greeted me warmly and bounded up to me to touch my nose. Her eyes were like a swarm of beautiful roses, each twinkling its own joyous light. I realized that I knew this cat, though no name came to mind. She spoke to me about my future, my destiny, and what I was meant to be."

She paused, suddenly looking up at Raven with a thoughtful expression. "But I've gotten off-topic. The reason why I am still here is because of my kits. I love them and care for them, even if one of them may never return my love." She seemed to choke on that, pausing to regain her bearings. "I wanted them to grow up, when they could hunt for themselves, before leading them out from beneath the Storm's shadow and into the stary nights."

Raven's mind swarmed with thoughts, most of which he couldn't pin-down and articulate into words. Instead, he sat back and let it settle, waiting until he was ready for more words.

"I had discussed this with Lion, once," she admitted, "but he refused to bring it up in a family meeting. I told him that he and his brother and sister needed to go, that I had grown too old to carry myself across the land which would get me out of the Shadowlands."

The black and white tom jerked up at that, affronted that she should even consider such a thing, but he remained silent and largely grateful that Lion had refused to bring it up. A hard glance from her brought him back to a crouch, paws tucked underneath him, though a restless energy prevented him from fully settling again.

"I realized that he would not go anywhere while I am still alive," she said, finally. "None of my kits would, not even Tiger. Selfishly, I am grateful. I do not want to die alone here, not with only my old bones and weak muscles. It gets eerie here at night, as if something is lurking in the shadows that I cannot see. The presence does not feel like a stranger's to me, nor an enemy's, but I still feel uneasy with it there."

She paused, eyes narrowed as she glanced at Raven. "You know," she said, "you are the first cat that I have ever met who could get my secrets out of me so easily."

Raven felt uneasy at the compliment, as if he didn't deserve it, but her next words only made him even more uneasy.

"Perhaps it's my old age creeping up on me."

He shuddered. "You make it sound like a hunter."

Her eyes narrowed. "It _is_. He is the greatest hunter known to cat kind. Some cats call him Time."

…

The cozy queen's den smelled like nothing and muffled sounds came from inside, both absorbed by the presence of moondust.

_'Well,'_ Hearth thought. _'It certainly draws predators away. No scent to track.'_

Her meow was muffled by the mouse in her jaws as she called out to her sister. A meow answered her, warmly welcoming her and the prey. A mottled golden pelt emerged from the nursery, and Lion gave her a warm 'hello' as he headed toward the cat door. Hearth frowned, shoving down a bout of jealousy. It seemed he received most of Blaze's attention nowadays.

She wasn't against their relationship; in fact, she felt happy for them. The love between those two cats seemed to made of chains fastened around their necks. One wasn't far from the other, and they were often caught doing very kittenish things together. It seemed like a fun thing to do - to have a mate - but Hearth didn't see herself finding one real soon. So, she shoved aside her jealousy and meander into the den.

The three young ginger kits tumbled around, greeting the new cat with a bump into her legs. Hearth purred in amusement, watching the three kits stumbled to their paws, their play having been interrupted by her presence. They gave soft, unintelligent meows as they suddenly found an interest in her tail. Words bubbled from their throats in short bursts, their small sentences meaning more than what Hearth and Blaze were capable of understanding.

"Morning, sister," Hearth greeted her once-pregnant sibling. "How are things between you and Lion?"

The proud fiery red she-cat purred in amusement. "As difficult as ever," she said, amused. She sniffed the air, but the moondust made it tasteless. "What did you bring?"

"Mouse," she responded, purring, picking it up and dropping beside the cat. She stepped back, allowing the larger cat more room in the semi-crowded nursery. "Does Destiny visit you often?" she asked, only half-interested. Beyond the few words of wisdom the old cat shared and the interesting stories, Hearth did not see anything special about her. She was old and feeble-minded, not the same cat that Raven or Blaze seemed to admire.

Blaze shook her head. "No, she rarely seems to get away from Dapples, the poor cat!"

Hearth perked her ears up at that. "What? What do you mean by that?"

The older sister sighed in exasperation. "I mean, that it's sad Dapples bothers the poor old cat so much."

The mocha-colored she-cat blinked her amber eyes in confusion. "She does?"

In all honesty, Hearth never saw that she-cat around. It was as if Dapples was always busy, though Hearth never saw her return with prey after a bout through the forest. It was always herbs, herbs and more herbs. Hearth shuddered to think what the cat did with those herbs - she could not help but think back to the Re-

Hearth blinked, refocusing on the play fighting kits before her. She stared at them, allowing herself to quickly be distracted. Blaze frowned, but did not question the odd behavior. The two sisters remained in silence for a while, enjoying each others company while it could last. A nagging sensation began to form in Hearth's mind and she opened her mouth to confront Blaze.

"Why was Lion here?" she asked.

"Lion?" Blaze asked, startled.

Hearth looked at her curiously, causing the queen to turn and look away. Hearth frowned. "Blaze?"

The unsettling silence which settled over them bothered Hearth, and she felt the rift which had begun to form between her and her sister, caused by a nameless yellow cat, start to grow.

"Okay," she said, "I'll come back with some water-soaked moss. I'm sure it could do you a world of good."

Blaze meowed her thanks as Hearth left. The mocha-colored she-cat frowned at her sister's odd behavior, wondering what could possibly have caused her sister to clam up. Ever since her sister and Lion had gotten together, a rift seemed to have forged between her and and her sister; a rift which seemed to be growing the long she stayed there.


	2. Part 2

The morning dew collected on the speckled leaves outside the Cabin. As Tiger stuck his head out the catdoor, it brushed against the foliage and showered his head with rainwater. Gritting his fangs in anger at his suddenly wet fur, and at life in general, he squinted across the clearing at the multicolored forest. His sand-colored brother ginned at him from a distance, his amber eyes gleaming in the sunlight, filled with a sudden joy at Tiger's appearance. Tiger frowned, his pelt prickling beneath his brother's gaze, and he pulled himself the rest of the way out, shaking his head furiously as he approached Lion. Sunlight warmed his pelt, and Tiger forgot about his wet head as he absorbed the scents of the forest in one breath.

"Ready to go?" asked Lion, a strange note of happiness in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Tiger meowed, returning his brother's grin with his own small smile.

Encouraged by this, Lion's grin hitched up a bit more and he turned and raced into the forest, only half speed so that his larger and inexperienced brother could keep up. Tiger felt his fur prickle at that, making his frown disappear. His face twisted into a sneer, taking the subtle insult to heart, and forced his muscles to flex, shooting beyond his brother and darting into the forest. The joy of being in front rushed through Tiger, and he suddenly smirked, proud at his somewhat minor accomplishment to dash Lion's expectations. The sand-pelted tom appeared beside him, and Tiger smiled as he realized the tom had to put some effort into his run in order to keep up. The two brothers shared a moment in the wind, racing side-by-side, until finally Tiger's growing wariness forced them both to stop. He panted lightly as he looked over at his brother, who didn't seem at all affected by their short sprint, and Tiger's ears flicked in annoyance.

Lion looked around, taking in the sight of the forest and recognizing a few landmarks. "Wow, we made quick time," he said, a purr rumbling in his throat. Tiger's small smile returned as he gazed at his happy sibling, recognizing his own joy reflected in his brother's bright amber gaze. Noticing the smile, Lion returned it with his own big grin. "At this rate, we'll have twice the amount of prey as last leaf-bare."

Tiger winced at that, recalling how he used to be so terrible at hunting and wondered if he would be able to catch anything, regardless of all the practice had put into building his muscles back up. A tree stump did not immediately equal a caught rabbit, especially since a rabbit was moving and much faster than Tiger, if his past as a bad hunter was anything to go by. The dark tabby frowned, worried that he might mess up and end up with barely a mouse for the Clan.

That reminded him of Blaze's old teasing's about his poorly kept hunting skills and Lion's old encouragements to get him back into practice. He knew that his brother had merely been concerned for him and disapproving of his lackadaisical attitude at the time, but Tiger could not entirely forgive him for allowing Blaze to rub her prey in his face. It made he frown and doubt whether Lion might leave him be to hunt, or watch him fail from a distance.

Lion, ignorant of his brother's concerns, grinned. "At least, now you can at least bring a mouse home," he said, teasingly.

Tiger's ears flattened for an instant at the tease, reminded at his past failure to catch even that, before the tom relaxed his face and forced a somewhat crooked grin. "I should at least catch a log," he rumbled.

The yellow tom laughed, ears flicking excitedly and an easy smile creeping across his face. Tiger felt a happy warmth settle in his chest, and he realized he was glad to be here with his brother, hunting and racing like when they were barely six moons old, so long ago, before he met Silver at the Redhouse.

Tiger shuddered at the thought of that place, his eyes meeting Lion's once before he looked away, not wanting his brother to worry about him. "I'll head that way," he meowed, looking off into the leafy tree covered area before looking back at his brother.

Lion nodded, his eyes clouded in thought. "Don't hurt yourself," he replied, blinking his thoughts away and giving his brother a grin.

Tiger nodded in return and padded away, noting with a frown when his paws made noises against the leaves. He stopped moving, ears perked and eyes searching for a way through. He saw a gnarled tree root creeping up over the ground barely visible over the tree leaves. He bunched his muscles and sprang for it, noticing how he landed with barely a sound, his claws gripping the wood and his pelt pressed against the wood. He crouched, looking around the tree and scenting air for prey.

A cold wind blew through the forest, taking the stifling heat with it in an explosion of dancing leaves. They decorated the earth in a colorful blanket of orange, yellow, and red, and crinkled loudly underneath the paw of any nearby prey. The familiar sound of a large familiar prey pushing aside leaves as it stepped forward reached his ears, causing Tiger's jaw to drop and his lungs to suck in air. The scent of the rabbit carried easily across the cold and sharp wind, pulling all of Tiger's thoughts into the hunt. He started forward, his paw shooting out over the leaves to land on the nearest tree root. His dark red and striped coat blended in perfectly with the world around him, and he grinned internally as he pictured his unsuspecting prey before him. He sucked in another breath into his huge lungs, preparing for the chase that would come. Tiger wasn't about let this prey get away.

A scuffling in the leaves cause Tiger's ears to perk, and he turned his head around the tree trunk, catching sight of the whitish grey coat of the skinny animal. Lean muscle bunched beneath long fur as the rabbit hopped forward again, causing the leaves to crinkle beneath it. Tiger's amber eyes darted over the surrounding area, judging just how long it would take this particular animal to turn around. Internally nodding to himself, he bunched his muscles and darted out, leaves skidding everywhere as he stretched all his limbs for that burst of speed he would need.

The rabbit's eyes went huge as the predator descended, and it instinctively turned around, neck stretching behind it and legs pumping, paws searching for grip that would let it fly. It struck root, propelling the prey forward, right into Tiger's waiting jaws. With a crunch, Tiger's big teeth sank into flesh and his jaws snapped across bone, realigning it's spine and causing it to go limp, twitching in death. The tom's powerful neck rippled as he twisted his prey around him and raised his head, so his prey wouldn't drag as much.

A yellow pelt suddenly appeared before him as his brother balanced perfectly on a root, appearing with all the silence of a ghost. "Well done," Lion purred. "That rabbit wasn't expecting it."

Tiger dropped his prey in surprise. He had suspected this, but he didn't think it could be true.

"Have you been waiting for me to slip up, brother?" he asked coldly, his annoyance adding fuel to his mounting anger. "Can't wait to sick your mate on me when I get back to the cabin?"

The mottled yellow tom's eyes suddenly went huge, shocked. "No! I would never do that."

Tiger's amber eyes narrowed, the faint memory of Blaze's teases adding fuel to his fire, and he growled. "You could have fooled me."

Lion's bright amber eyes sparked with pain and hurt as Tiger picked his prize back up and started heading back to the Clan. The mottled tom remained in his shocked stupor until Tiger forcibly shouldered him aside in order to get through, though there wasn't a bush around for miles to warrant the contact, and Lion felt all of Tiger's anger and frustration let out in that angry move. He staggered into the leaves, forgetting everything except for what Tiger had said.

"I didn't send her after you!" he yowled. "She saw you needed help and decided to do it herself." Lion pawed at the leaves, as if shifting them aside would somehow push Tiger back towards him. His world was falling apart, shattering before his very eyes as Tiger continued to walk away. "I only wanted you to hunt with me again."

His voice fell on deaf ears and Lion found himself alone in the silence. He shivered as another wind blew, as cold as Tiger's angry heart, and he winced painfully. He had not wanted things to go this way.

He did not want this at all.

…

Raven gazed up at the Moon Tree, unaware of Destiny's contemplative gaze looking at the reflections of the invisible moon in his eyes. His clear gaze reminded her of someone else, causing her pelt to bristle in an uncomfortable way. Destiny distracted herself by following his line of sight, up into the Moon Tree and beyond into the dark clouds of the sky, where the moon's fuzzy outline could barely be seen.

Finally, Raven spoke. "Why did Lion and Blaze pick on Tiger so much?" His ears flicked forward as he turned his gaze on the old she-cat. "Doesn't he have a right to chose whether or not to hunt?"

Destiny frowned, her mind returning to a few months ago, when she and Dapples had a long discussion about a similar question. Of course, Dapples had asked out of curiosity and concern for Tiger and a confusion towards Lion. The strange ways in which toms worked often did not click easily with she-cats, though Blaze seemed to be a special case. Destiny's lips quirked as she thought of the hot-headed queen, reminded of her fierce personality and warrior spirit, though she lacked belief in any real system of ethics. It was one of the most difficult obstacles Destiny had ever tried to breach, though each attempt to approach the red she-cat had ended in disaster. She licked her chest in thought, pondering exactly how she was going to deal with that. She forgot about Raven, until the black and white tom ahem-ed at her.

She blinked up at him, before her memories caught up with her. She smiled warmly at him. "Darling, you would be surprised how similar that question was to Dapples' a few moons ago." She blinked again. It was almost too similar, really. As if both Raven and Dapples had chosen some similar path long ago and now they both were working their way towards whatever ends it meant. However, Destiny felt that Dapples' path would be much easier to walk than Raven's, considering that it took the tom a lot longer to finally get on it.

Another polite cough drew her out of her wondering and her eyes glittered at Raven in amusement. "Impatient are we?" she purred. "I am old, you know."

The tom shuffled awkwardly, his blue eyes looking uncertain, reflecting his discomfort. "I'm sorry," he meowed. "I just really want to know."

"Yes," she purred, "you are indeed much like my daughter." She frowned to herself, staring at his twitching tailtip for a moment before finally meeting his gaze. "I apologize, Raven. I thought that you liked her, that that was why you kept looking at us from afar, visiting the Moon Tree while we were around, but now I realize that wasn't the case. You were looking for what Dapples could never give you, that she had no possible way of giving you; my knowledge. I was blind to your needs, young cat, and I am sorry that I ever thought you and Dapples had a thing." She rumbled at her own choice of words, before bemusement took over. "Though I'm afraid she might still think _that_." She became quiet again, causing Raven to frown. She had yet to answer his question.

"That's okay," he began awkwardly, unsure how to continue. "So...?"

At his silent question, Destiny sighed. "I promise to include you in our discussions more often, Raven, if you would like that."

Those blue eyes went huge with surprise. "Truly? I mean, are you going to teach me the herbs too?"

The old queen laughed lightly, smiling at the toms sudden eagerness. She knew she had just fulfilled one of his long desired wishes. She nodded. "Of course."

Raven practically exploded with glee, jumping onto his paws and walking around in a circle, grinning from ear to ear and purring loudly from deep within his chest. He almost rubbed up against her in pleasure, but resisted, knowing he probably would overstep his boundaries. This did not stop him from leaping forward and giving her a rough lick on the head in gratitude. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" he beamed. He hadn't meant for things to turn that way, but he loved it.

"Right, right, right," Destiny rumbled, ears flickering in amusement. "Calm down, kit, and I'll tell you _why_ Lion and Blaze did what they did."

Grateful beyond measure and trembling with his sudden outburst of joy, Raven instantly tucked his paws beneath him, ears perked forward and eyes wide, waiting for another tale from the queen's storytellers' voice which had heard only once, long long ago.

…

Moonlight shown as bright as ever in the Moon Clearing, and the misty form of the Cat of Many Stars sighed as the calico mortal stood near the tunnel entrance, racking her brain for another slew of questions. Part of the day had already flown away outside, but time did not function normally here in the Moon Clearing. A few minutes could mean a few days here, or the opposite depending on what went on. For Dapples, those precious seconds were turning into an eternity as she struggled to come up with another good question.

Then, it hit her.

"Why us?"

The misty form of the dead she-cat stirred slightly, as if her insides were up set by a foreign wind, drawing her out of her internal turmoil to address the living. "Why else?"

The question only served to baffle Destiny even more, causing her to hunker down and pondering exactly how to say it to this she-cat. When she finally looked up from an interesting blade of glass on the floor, she noticed that the spirit had crouched down, paws tucked underneath, with her bright eyes narrowed into patient and knowing slits.

"Why is Destiny so important that the spirits appeared? Why now of all times and all the other cats?" she finally meowed.

The Cat of Many Stars sighed, as if this question wasn't worth the time she had put into waiting for it. "Because now is the best of times for all future Clan cats."

Dapples ears flicked forward at the unknown word, but she said nothing, waiting for the spirit cat to continue. The Cat stretched her misty form as she stood up, sweeping her tail around her as if to gesture at life in general. "A great prophecy comes to us from times far into the future, though no cat dead nor living knows what it should mean. It is because of this prophecy, and much else, that we have started to gather in the skies, bringing our dead children with us. They faded, as memories fade, but I did not. No amount of living memory could keep me here, though three of you have yet to truly forget me. I would have continued on, if not for one of our distant ancestors visiting me and informing me of the prophecy. Then, I knew I was meant to stay; the first of my kind."

The answer only served to bring more questions, but Dapples knew better than to ask them all at once. Instead, she searched for the best question to ask and get the best answer she was looking for. After all, the placement of her words seemed to work well with this cat. "What are you the first of?" she asked.

At this, the other cat merely lifted her head and said, "StarClan." She did not seem to think it needed further explanation.

Dapples' eye twitched slightly, but she refused to allow her mounting frustration to get to her. "But what is a _Clan_?" she meowed.

"A group of cats, related by blood to a group of ancestors," she meowed simply. "You are not a Clan. Yet."

Dapples gave a cry of confusion. "What do you mean by _that_!?"

The Cat of Many Stars remained silent, eyes closed. Dapples kneaded the ground with her paws in agitation. Her questions didn't seem to be getting her anywhere. It was like talking to Destiny as a kit all over again. So many confusing details, so many confusing terms which didn't always give an explanation of the whole story. She snorted, an itching desire to move flowing through her. It felt like she had been moving in a while and she didn't like it. She frowned to herself as she paced, eyes turned to the floor and mind turned to everything the Cat had told her.

Unbesknown to Dapples, the Cat had finally come back to the land of the living - figuratively, of course - but her eyes had focused on someone standing behind the pacing she-cat. The Cat seemed to weight it in her mind, like a stone put on a balance beam. Slowly, she stretched her limbs and flexed her claws in thought, watching her claws glint in the moonlight, phantoms of real-life blades. When she spoke, Dapples heard nothing.

" _How are things on your end, Spottedkit?_ " she meowed.

The phantom of the future young she-cat stirred from the tunnel entrance, her eyes following the pacing she-cat as she answered. " _I'm_ _okay_ ," she meowed. " _Though I'm not exactly sure why I'm here. Am I supposed to witness something?_ "

A smile flickered across the dead cat's face and she purred lowly in amusement. " _You will, you will,_ " she assured the other cat, before finally turning to Dapples, her eyes hard and tendril of mist flying in front of Dapples, bring her out of her thoughts.

"You must tell her," she meowed, sounding suddenly angry. "As Lion told Blaze, you must tell her."

"Who?" Dapples meowed, sitting down and staring at the Cat, perplexed. Whatever questions she might have asked simply tumbled about in her head and settled into the folds and creases, waiting to be called from the darkness at another time.

"Silver," rumbled the Cat. "She is the key to everything that must be and will be."

That answer served to throw Dapples into even more confusion as she tried to connect the Silver cat with something as important as the future. She sat on her tail and blinked at her. Honestly, she was surprised that anything surprised her right now. "What?"

The Cat sighed, summoning endless patience from her depths as she began again. "You must tell Silver about the Clans, about Leaders and Apprentices and why the warrior code exists," she clarified. "Tell her about the honorific suffix 'star', of the name of warriors and apprentices, of their honor to the clan and their loyalty to each other, brother and sister to brother and sister." She blinked. "Talk about leadership, about nobility, and show her what lies in the hearts of the cats here. Tell her so that she might see it for herself one day. This is the task we entrust upon you and all your descendents who should follow in your footsteps. Witness our acts and see our prophecies, protect our Clans, heal our wounded, and make the Clans strong with your words of wisdom."

The idea of having such an important task made her heart swell, but then she stopped, curling her tail around her paws. "I can't tell her," she meowed, feeling defeated. "She never listens." She recalled Silver leaving the den, not believing Destiny when she had told her to stay.

The Cat suddenly looked angry. "We did not call upon you to become what you are so that you should give up," she meowed fiercely, her rosy eyes gleaming brighter and brighter. "Do not doubt us, Dapples. Question us, seek for truths, but never doubt us."

Dapples' ears flattened flat against her head and she flinched back at the she-cats words, looking guiltily at her paws. The Cat sighed and her voice softened. "It is true, there is still one story you do not know." She gestured with her tail, neither at Dapples or Spottedkit, but at someones neither of them could see. "Come and speak, children."

A cloud of mist formed around them, forming into three distinct shapes. One with a dark grey coat and white spots, another with a light grey coat and white spots, and the third was brownish-red with black tabby stripes. Yellow lights shown from the once amber eyes of all three toms. The largest among them, the darker grey and white, stepped forward and nodded and smiled warmly in greeting to Dapples, who shifted, flustered. This only served to make his smile widen, and he purred in greeting.

"Hello," he meowed. "I'm sure you recognized my coat color."

Dapples nodded, speechless, her pelt uncomfortably warm as she took in the male's faint scent. She could clamp her feelings down, and her tail shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, I did," she rasped, embarrassed.

His smile slowly faded from his face as a seriousness suddenly came over him. Solemnly, he began his tale. "Everything in the world dies for a reason, whether that reason is obvious or not." He gestured with his tail tip to himself and his brothers. "Silver would not listen to Destiny when she told her that Silver should stay at the cabin. She did not listen to anyone and she did not know why Destiny wanted her to stay. She believed that Destiny was an only cruel queen, meant merely to make her life miserable, and the only reason she did not return home was because she knew she would be doing so alone. At the first opportunity, when Destiny had annoyed her too much, she left the house and headed back to the Red-house."

"It was no accident that we died that day," meowed the brownish-red tom, starry amber eyes gleaming. "In order to convince Silver to stay, StarClan had to first show Silver how wrong she was. She had to learn what lead Destiny; a mother's heart. However," he meowed, raising a tail to stop Dapples in mid-word, "if we had remained alive after she had learned this lesson, she would not be able to save the Clan from what is to come."

The toms stopped speaking, allowing Dapples a moment to let it sink in. She frowned in confusion, stepping forward as she spoke. "But what is to come?" she asked.

Before the darker grey and white tom could answer, the Cat of Many Stars swiped her tail over them and they disappeared into the mist. She sat alone in the moonlit clearing, with Dapples and Spottedkit watching her closely. She fixed her swirling eyes upon Dapples and said sternly. "Silver must learn these things, well and truly, before destiny no longer gives the opportunity."


	3. Part 3

 

The black and white tom sucked in a breath of Moon Tree air - motionless, tasteless. His ears perked up at the sound of prey moving around between the roots of the great oak, prey that were unable to hear or smell their hunters thanks to the moondust. Neither of the cats moved to pounce on them, however, too preoccupied with thoughts of the Starcats and destiny to bother.

"You know..." he breathed, frowning at the Moon Tree, hoping to divine some secret there. "I can't stop thinking about the others and their destinies."

The queen blinked, but she did not say anything to that.

Raven flicked his ears, looking at her pale moon-colored eyes. "Do you ever get the feeling that they're destined for something more... like Lion might be destined to lead them with his strength and confidence, or that Silver might be destined to tear them apart with her selfishness and vanity? Should we... I don't know... help them get there, like make a few adjustments here and there, working silently in the background, aiding them in their goal?"

He stopped speaking, almost afriad he had said something wrong. When he heard the almost silent scrap of claws against sand, he blinked in surprise as her snow white claws sank back into the soft paws. He looked up at her nervously, unease prickling his pelt as he gazed into her round pale moon eyes, wondering if what Lion said was true. Was Destiny truly off her rocker? But Destiny blinked, breaking the stiff spell between them; the depths within her eyes twin calm pools filled to the brim with knowledge.

"It is not our place to chose their destinies for them," she meowed, whiskers twitching in anger. "Can you read their minds? Tell me, and if you do than you are certainly a much better cat than me. If you do not, then how do you know if what they appear to be is truly what they are? And even then, can you see into the future and confirm your predictions to be true? Without these, we therefore can never be sure the destinies we chose for them are right, that we won't be leading them astray and twisting them down some darker path because of our meddling."

Raven frowned, head tilting slightly, thinking over these strange words. "So, you don't believe it's right for any cat to determine another's destiny?" he meowed, puzzled. "What about your idea for the afterlife? Aren't they controlling our destinies, too? Do they know what will happen to us in the future?"

"I'd assume so. Though we all know what assuming can do to us," she said with a grin.

The black and white tom frowned, brow furrowed in confusion. "But what about you and Dapples? Didn't you pick out that destiny for her?"

Dapples shook her head at the young tom, bemusement causing her whiskers to twitch again. "She chose that destiny, just as you chose to come to me with all your questions."

The slight admonishment in her tone caused Raven to wince and he looked down at his paws. He understood the words coming out of her mouth, but he still couldn't let go of his old theories. He wanted to hold on to them, simply because he made them and a part of him was stubborn enough to keep the memory of all his heard work.

"But... you mean... Lion might not be our future leader?" he meowed, feebly. He knew it wasn't much of an arguement, but it was the only thing he had. He had never seen the tom as doing anything other, quiet and calm, with a presence that simply commanded prowess and attention. He trained Blaze really well, and Raven himself, and even helped encourage Tiger to get back into shape. It seemed only nature that the yellow tom's next step was to become leader, though Raven wasn't sure how he would get there with Dapples and Destiny in charge. He shivered internally at the dark thoughts which suddenly entered his mind, and quickly squashed them before it could descend further into madness.

The brown and white she-cat shook her head slowly. "He might be and he might not be. We cannot truly know the future paths of other cats, and not even our own. For all we know, somewhere along the lines, Lion may lose his grip on his current path and chose to walk another, darker one. Or Silver may very well find her on the road to leadership herself - we cannot truly tell. Time is a great hunter, but his greatest joy come from toying with his prey until they are nothing more than terrified lumps ready for eating." She flicked an ear, pulling herself from her thoughts and giving Raven a nod. "Keep your mind open to the future, Raven, especially when it concerns the future of yourself or others. Cats change when given the chance to.

"But," she meowed, frowning, "speaking of which; I do not believe it our destiny to remain anywhere near the Twolegs. I believe we are destined to break from them entirely, form a Clan of sorts, if you will, and live far, far away from here..." She became quiet, tucking her chin into her chest fur in thought.

The tom got the strangest feeling in his pelt, as if a part of him knew that there was more to her story than that, but he could not yet put a paw on it. He instead turned back at the tree, staring at it's leafy branches, silvery white in the moonlight. He blinked, surprised as he realized that the clouds had started to roll over the crescent moon, turning the tree a whitish grey. Sighing as the supernatural sight and feel began to slip away with the moon, he stared down at his paws. He didn't feel right making conversation with Destiny when the light of the sky disappeared, as if it had taken with it whatever stirrings were in his heart. He suddenly rose to his paws, causing Destiny to return from whatever musings she had just been exploring.

"Raven?" she meowed, concerned.

He smiled warmly at her, not wanting her to worry. "I think I should go collect something from the fresh-kill pile. Wanna join me?"

Destiny blinked slowly at him, before rising to her paws with a slow smile, glad he had asked. "Ack, I think I can bring these old bones of my through the tunnel again today," she said, purring and grinning mischievously. "Besides, I still have to tell you the great story of the ages, of how Shadow stole the sound from the stormy skies and how River tricked the howling wind into the dark tunnels of the earth." She grinned broadly, baring her fangs as a twinkling came to her old eyes. A rumbling purr escaped her throat as she continued in playful amusement; "Oh, how terrible those Forest elements are!"

…

For the first time in her journeys to the clearing, a cloud had fallen over the only light in sky, causing darkness to quickly descend over the Moon Clearing. The Cat of Many Stars and the three toms, Ash among them, had already left her alone before the world darkened, having already brought their conversation to an awkward end. She twitched her whiskers at the world in general, annoyed at the clouds for preventing her from asking anymore questions or at some other more unworldly event, the thought of which honestly didn't sit well with her. Dawn was approaching on the horizon, as part of the eastern sky had started to grow lighter, though no orb showed through the dirty white clouds.

Dapples sighed as she forced herself to her paws, pausing at the entrance to the dark and empty tunnel. A small wind howled down the tunnel, brushing against her fur and bringing a strange scent to her nose. She shook the scent away, steeling her nerves to plunge into the dark tunnels and to leave the world behind. Her whiskers brushed against the cold stone walls and she shivered as she felt her paws fall through air before colliding with soft moondust. The dust gave too much beneath her paws and caused her stomach to plunge beneath her and into the blackness, slowly swallowed whole by the pit of darkness. She shuddered, forcing herself forward as fear and dread began to roll into her stomach.

The unnerving silence and the darkness made her shiver. She felt alone in this dark world, with barely anything to catch her paws from falling. She wanted to stop and almost did, but she realized if she did, she might never start up again. She shivered again, knowing the only way out was forward. Why did it bother her so much today? She had never felt this way in the tunnels before but, then again, she had never been instructed by dead cats to visit someone she didn't really like before. She didn't want to disobey them; who knows what powers they had backing them and what their punishments for failure were. Though she had grown to like Ash and his charismatic appearance, she knew he was also related to Silver. She didn't want to let him down, just as much as she didn't want to speak with Silver. After all, she had never really spoken with the other cat before; she hardly knew her.

That realization didn't make her feel any better. She pressed her shoulder up against the cold stone wall, taking comfort from the solid wall against her shoulder and finding some knowing there was something in the darkness made her feel infinitely better, even if it was a cold slimy wall. She shuddered against the cold, eyes wide and whiskers trembling at the sheer might of the darkness. Not yet having realized that she had stopped, she licked her lips. She suddenly heard the rushing sound of water and froze. It sounded as if a massive river were rushing through the tunnels. She grimaced, shivering, as she felt the cold water suddenly soak her paws, her fur, and she imagined herself being lifted up by the roaring white waves. She needed to escape, to get out, but her paws seemed to have grown roots; she couldn't move.

She shut her eyes, but that didn't do much for her vision. She took deep and calming breaths, feeling the rabid beating of her heart in her chest slow down slightly. Almost instantly, the roar of the water died down. She blinked open her eyes, listening for the sound of the water, but her heart was slowing down and the sound of water was slowly being replaced by the nothing of the tunnels. Comforted by the silence, she started forward again, her paws striking soft and cushioning dust, dry and warm beneath her paws.

The tunnels seemed to unfold, running endlessly into the darkness before her. She couldn't tell which way she was going; Destiny was more well-versed in the bends and movements of the tunnel and all its secret passages. A nagging thought entered her mind - _why had Destiny never spoken about the Moon Clearing?_ \- before she dismissed it. She had simply never brought it before, she told herself. Besides, their little family had some other things on their mind besides that.

 _Family..._ she thought, pausing again. She had suddenly been struck by an epiphany. She forgot about being in the tunnel; the darkness allowed her memories to rear up in front of her and dance as her mind suddenly reeled from the knowledge. She simply stood there, unmoving, allowing the dark world around her to be forgotten, allowing it to absorb it into her person, allowing the darkness to seep into her bones as her mind wandered.

She had remembered running into someone in the middle of the tunnel. Silver. _Silver had been so confused then_ , she realized. She had been confused, feeling as if the entire world was turning against her. When she had wanted to go back home to the Redhouse, she didn't want to go back alone. She had made it obvious, her want to leave, complaining about everything, but no one payed her any mind. They thought she had simply been complaining and something _had_ been keeping her back. And it wasn't just Tiger, Dapples realized. She had wanted Raven and the others to go with her. But... calm and curious Raven had decided to stay; strong and tough Blaze had decided to stay; and, when Blaze decided to stay, so did Hearth. But the most important part of that equation, Tiger, had stayed.

Dapples suddenly understood; Silver's entire family, everyone she knew, had wanted to stay at the Cabin, for one reason or another. Silver's heart and home had wanted to stay behind, though she hated the place. She had stayed for them, simply because she didn't want to go home alone. She had stayed. Loyalty or not, she had stayed. Until she couldn't stay anymore. She had decided to leave them, heavy with kits. _Did she even know that she was pregnant?_ Dapples wondered. She had left them, pregnant, ready to pop. She had left.

 _Why?_ Why had she left? No one would go with her. No one wanted to leave for her. Did she leave because of that? Because no one would leave with her? Because no one was loyal to her.

 _That wasn't true_ , she thought, remembering her conversation with her mother. _Silver had Tiger_. But did Silver know that? Did Silver know that she had people here?

 _No_ , she realized. _Silver didn't know_. If Silver knew, she wouldn't have left. She wouldn't have wanted to live at the Redhouse. She wouldn't have thought to leave Tiger.

 _But how could she not know?_ Dapples wondered. Tiger brought her food everyday. Tiger defended her honor and protected her from the hard life. Did she even notice Dapples' brother doing this for her?

_No. If she did, she wouldn't have left._

Dapples' legs had folded up beneath her, and she realized that she was crouching down in the moondust, which was oddly warm beneath her paws. She blinked at the darkness, feeling oddly warmed by it. It was easier to think in the tunnels. She didn't have to listen to anything or hear anything, except her own memories and her own imaginations. She remembered her conversation with her mother, about their little family's complicated relationship and it made her smile. Did her mother think like this all the time, always trying to figure things out? It was almost fun, enlightening even.

Dapples sighed, comforted by the darkness and the memories, and the power of simply sitting down and thinking it out. She hadn't realized this is what smart people do, like her mother did. She hadn't realized she was this smart, either. The idea of being smart made her bare her teeth in a smile. She was happy to be here, to be thinking, being smarter and wiser and simply knowing something that she discovered all on her own. Her pelt warmed in pride and pleasure. Slowly, stretching her paws forward in the darkness, she moved forward into the darkness, welcoming it, comforted by it.

Slowly, her world became lighter, brighter, even if only by a little bit, and she found herself gazing up at the whitish-grey Moon Tree. It's oak leaves spread wide, speckles of yellow and red painting the leaves a green dapple. The moondust was thicker around the mouth of the tunnel, coating the ground beneath the tree lightly. She smelled the tasteless air, listening to the faint sounds of prey on the edge of the large building. Green glass, warped by years of rain, seemed to want to melt right out of the sil. Dapples paused at the entrance, her tail wrapped around her paws as she absorbed the sight for the very first time. A breeze rattled the glass above her, and Dapples ears perked as she heard something whistle faintly. She frowned to herself, looked around and wondering to herself what might be causing it.

A sniffling sound drew her attention away from her own thoughts and she noticed for the first time the light grey she-cat lying at the base of the tree, her back to her. It took Dapples a moment to realize that that hunched, shivering form was Silver. Surprised and suddenly concerned, she rose to her paws and padded forward, leaping up the small wall to sit beside Silver on the clean dirt. Thin patches of moondust coated the ground here, sinking into the dips of the rich black ground. Dapples frowned as she took in the visage of Silver, shivering and crying, eyes closed and with her nose pressed up against the bark. Dapples blinked, gazing at the bark and up at the leaves, partially bathed in moonlight.

"Silver?" she meowed, looking back at the she-cat. The queen simply sat there, shivering, and Dapples wondered if the she-cat was actually asleep.

For an instant, Dapples thought about leaving her here, but that thought was quickly crushed. She gave a sigh in resignation. _No_ , she told herself; _for Dawn, I will do this. Silver needs me._ She glanced at the sleeping and crying cat, and placed her head on her paws. _Even though she doesn't realize it yet._

_…_

A small puddle had collected beside the tunnel entrance. Hearth didn't like to go through the tunnels for water, and neither did Silver, before she changed. Thankfully, Tiger had never stopped bringing large wet clumps of moss to the cabin's puddle. Hearth was grateful for it. She didn't have too go far to get Blaze a drink. It also gave her time to walk outside for a breath of fresh air.

Hearth frowned, gazing up at the sky. She felt the sun's warmth, even through the clouds, and the cold wind made her shiver. The sun was almost at its highest, and Lion's and Tiger's hunting party still hadn't returned. It wasn't like Lion to stay out so late, and it wasn't like Tiger either. That dark tabby always found his way back, if only to share tongues with always complaining, bratty 's lip curled at the idea of them together, but quickly squashed it. _It's only natural that the much more pretty silver she-cat would get the handsome joke_ , she told herself bitterly.

Having grown tired of the cold, she stepped back inside and paused, frowning at her paws. She need to keep her promise with her sister and get her a drink. The mocha-colored she-cat forced herself to pad around to the tunnel entrance and the puddle. She collected some moss, clawing it up from the wood, and dipped it in the fresh water, struggling to not squeeze it all out in her mouth.

 _If only the drama of Tiger's and Silver's life would end_ , she thought. Not that she had any interest in the dark tabby - or so she told herself - but Lion often came back a little bit more hurt after hunting with him. And that always got Blaze more secretive and hurt, leaving Hearth feeling more left out. _My sister probably blames herself for the two brother's friction_ , she thought. Hearth didn't blame Blaze, Lion or Tiger. She didn't want to think that they were at fault.

She padded the few tail-lengths back to the queen's den, pausing to listen to the cats within. The three mewling, nameless kits meowed at their mother, who purred loudly as they tussled. A few month had not changed much for them, except making them bigger and slightly less clumsy. Hearth hesitated only a moment more, before entering her sister's domain. Three ginger bundles bumped into her legs, causing her to purr as she padded over to Blaze. The older ginger she-cat gave a rumbling thank you and took the liquid, while Hearth sank into a crouch, tail curled around herself and amber eyes on the kits.

"You shouldn't be cooped up in here," the mocha she-cat meowed, gazing down at the others red pelt. "You haven't exercised in a while."

Blaze licked her lips of water and glanced back over her pelt, frowning. Her wonderful muscles had almost returned to their normal kittypet softness, throwing away months worth of training. "Yeah," she said with a crooked grin. "It'll take a while to get back into proper shape." She frowned, flexing her claws against the moondust covered ground, churning it beneath her as she stretched. Her frown deepened and she looked away with a sigh, gazing at her kits.

Hearth felt the strangest of feelings falling over her. Her sister's expression made her uncomfortable, and she felt as if she had made that except same expression before. The silence made her shift in discomfort.

"Hearth?" meowed Blaze, tail twitching in thought as she looked at her kits.

"Yeah?" the mocha she-cat responded, uncertain.

Her sister sounded distant, and thoughtful, which was often a never good sign. The last time she was like this, Blaze had regretted it and Lion had been hurt because of it. Hearth braced herself for her sister's next words, about ready to tell her that it would be a bad idea.

"Have you ever thought... about leaving?"


	4. Part 4

The mocha-colored gazed at her sister, unable to fully believe the words coming out of her mouth. " _Leave_?" she echoed, stunned. Horror crept up into her chest. "I would never even _think_ to leave you!" she mewed, her gazed shifting to land on the tussling two month old bundles playing about the floor, oblivious to their discussion and Hearth's rising voice. "I care about you. I care about your kits!" She suddenly gave her sister a hard look. "I can't leave you, and I don't want to you and I don't believe you deserve it."

Hearth paused, whiskers and tail twitching in panic as she gazed seriously into her sister's amber eyes - only to pause as she saw a glimmer of humor reflected in their depths. She struggled to think back over her own words, trying to fathom what might have her sister might find funny. "What-?" she asked, confused.

Blaze stood, sending one red bundle tumbling back into his siblings, who squeaked in surprise as he knocked them over. The red queen purred, rubbing her face against her's sisters neck and bumping against her, her purrs growing louder as she rubbed her cold nose into her sister's tense body.

"Oh, Hearth," she rumbled. "I never _want_ you to leave."

The younger she-cat frowned, whiskers twitching. "Then, why did you ask?"

"I _meant_ ," Blaze purred, pulling herself back and gesturing with a tail. "If you have ever thought about leaving the _Cabin_."

Hearth followed the direction her sister's tail tip flicked, out the door and beyond to the skeleton forest. Blaze's voice took on a serious tone. "And about leaving the Shadowlands."

Her ears warmed up in embarrassment as she stared at the outside world before she looked away, watching the kits play. "I'm sorry," she meowed, mentally kicking herself. Why did she even think that? Blaze would never _not_ want her around. They had been together since they were kits, even before they had been with Silver and Raven! She gave her sister a smile, who returned it.

"Yeah," she said, feeling much more confident now that was out-of-the-way. "I've thought about it, but I would never think of leaving here without you."

"Even if I can be a pain in the tail sometimes?" Blaze asked, purring with amusement.

"Yeah," Hearth purred back, the last of her nervousness leaving her.

Blaze's smile slowly disappeared and she relaxed slightly. "I've been think about this a lot, more so now that they are almost three moons old."

Hearth frowned, her mind immediately thinking back to what she had thought earlier. Before they had been with Silver and Raven...

 _The age our mother died_ , she realized, with a wince. _And when Silver and Raven's mom came to the Redhouse._

An unbidden memory came to mind and a heavily accented voice suddenly echoed hollowly in Hearth's ears. The old, familiar soothing voice sounded both oddly nervous and strained. She could almost imagine the silver tabby laying before her, with two small kits nuzzling into her flank, looking at Hearth with a mother's worry. _"I wish I knew what happened to your mother. I just can't shake the feeling that there's something about this place... that isn't good."_

"...that isn't good for my kits."

Hearth blinked and glanced at her sister, filled with a strange wonderment as she looked her sister over. To have quoted a queen almost exactly, especially for her sister's notoriously lousy memory. Then, she blinked as she tried to conjure up exactly what Blaze had just said. "Did you say something about Mother?" she asked, nervous that she had missed something important.

Blaze looked up from her paws, confused. "No," she meowed.

The mocha colored cat blinked. "Oh."

"Why did you ask?"

She shrugged. "Something you said just reminded me of her, is all."

"You remember Mother?"

"Only Silver's."

A quiet silence filled the den, causing an uncomfortable restlessness to stir within Hearth. She shifted her long limbs, flicking her tail and ears to release some of that pent-up energy. It only served to make her even more restless and she found herself wondering how Blaze managed to survive three months of doing nothing.

"I think," Hearth began, summoning up the courage to put her thoughts into words. Blaze gazed at her quietly, as if waiting for some magic to pour forth from her. A strange warmth suddenly filled her as Hearth realized that she was sharing a rare bonding moment here with her sister. Her whiskers twitched in a warm smile as she continued. "Destiny makes the perfect mom for Silver."

The queen paused, having not expected that, before her throat erupted in a loud purr. "A few claws in her fur certainly put her in her place. Wish I had done _that_ long ago."

They purred in amusement, relaxing in the quiet warmth of the dark den. Hearth shifted comfortably on the soft ground of the den as a companionable silence filled the den. Her warm smile began to creep across her face more, until it blossomed into a full-out grin. She watched her sister's eyes flash in the darkness, a flicker of amusement within them.

"You haven't answered my question though," the red sister said, eyes narrowing and amusement draining from them. A strange tension suddenly rippled across her frame, causing Hearth to shift uncomfortably.

"What question?" she asked, partly because she had forgotten and partly because she wanted to see if Blaze remembered. _How good was her sister's memory?_

_Does she remember what happened to Mother?_

"If you ever thought about leaving the Shadowlands," she meowed, frowning in slight annoyance. Hearth would have smiled when it seemed her sister had returned to her normal self if not for the fact that it was a serious question.

"Oh. I guess I have."

She hadn't thought about it at all, really, especially after Silver lost her kits.

She thought they had a nice life in the cabin; it was always warm in the queen's den, with fresh water nearby to drink and plenty of prey to eat. Hearth had never really gone hungry here... but she had never gone hungry back at the Redhouse either. When the human forgot to feed them, they had always been able to resort to finding mice. She remembered she had once caught a few for the silver tabby, but when she had returned to the queen's temporary den... She shook herself mentally, shaking away that thought. She didn't want to think of that now, not when Blaze was nearby. Hearth thought back to the original question, trying conjure up some answer that didn't sound farfetched or lousy. But... she couldn't exactly imagine a place better than the Cabin, and she could only imagine how bad most places would be outside of the Shadowlands. It was unknown territory for her.

"Why do we even call it that?" she meowed suddenly. "The 'Shadowlands'? It makes it seem like this place is darker and more mysterious than it actually is. I like it here; and it's certainly better than that old Twoleg's place." She the last bit scornfully, her nose wrinkling slightly in disgust as she recalled that place.

_"I wish I knew what happened to your mother."_

_I wish I did too_ , she thought silently as she meowed, "I like it here. I don't think we should leave it at all. Besides, who says the forest won't get any better?"

Blaze nodded, smirking halfheartedly, obviously not truly believing Hearth's words. "Yeah."

…

Before Tiger realized what he was doing, he found himself headed towards the territory of the Redhouse. He didn't realize it until after he reached a familiar stretch of earth, where the leaves fell away to his right into a small clearing. The smell of the place seemed to have disappeared over the months, which confused the dark tabby tom. He stopped on the fringes of the Redhouse border, marked by the underlying stench of death.

His hindquarters trembled as he recalled just how strongly the scent had been during the rains, and he resisted the urge to vomit up his breakfast. Licking his chops and suddenly unable to stand the sight of his catch, he immediately decided to bury it and return to it when his stomach had stopped feeling queasy. He slipped and slid down the slope with his prize in tow, grunting as his claws dug ineffectually into the leaves, sending them scattering everywhere. He spotted the wooden structure on his way down, a broken down lean-to that had seen better days. He dragged his prize to it, thinking he could use it as a marker to find his prey later.

The lean-to was too crippled for him to crawl into it and bury the prey there, so he began to claw the ground up in front of it. He dug at the soft earth, pushing mounds of soft earth to the side as he created a hole big enough to hide the large rabbit. Satisfied at the size, he picked up the prey in his big jaws and he dragged it to the hole, dropping it inside. As he began to push the earth back over it, he paused as he noticed something small and white upturn in the soil.

Bacteria had barely touched the small creature, revealing much of its dark brownish-red tabby fur. Dead, lifeless, the son of Tiger and Silver lay unburied in the ground beneath his paws, a horrid reminder of a night Tiger had only seen part of the story from. He stood, frozen, staring down at the kitten.

 _Was it one of the Redhouse's?_ he wondered, as he stared down. Regardless, it made his pelt prickle, staring at the little kit. No, he realized. The Redhouse never buried the bodies so deeply underground, which meant a cat had done it and much more recently. Someone from the cabin perhaps? He tried to think of which cats nearby had kited, and he recalled Blaze's big belly and how much it shrunk after kiting. Then, he remember that Silver had been big at one time too, and she had shrunk too. He recalled that it had been that night, the night had visited the Redhouse, had told her she could never return there. She had shrunk in size, too, but she hadn't had any kits around her.

A cold feeling of dread welled up inside Tiger, an all too familiar feeling which he had felt only once before, on that rainy day outside the Redhouse. He sat, motionless, taking in the little kit's body. Slowly, he tore his gaze away from it, noticing another slight rise in the ground. There were two, on either side of the small dead kitten. Slowly, he rose to his paws and unsheathed his claws, mindlessly clawing the soil and up turning it. He didn't have to dig far to uncover a second body, a dark grey tom. It was hard to tell if there was any white spots on its small coat, but Tiger did not doubt that it had those spots. When he uncovered the third tom, he identified at least three white spots in its light grey coat. Three toms, one tabby, two dappled coats...

Tiger did not need to be a genius to know what had happened, and he sat back, mind whirling. He shouldn't have been surprised, really. He could still recall his mother's words, and he had been unable to believe them at the time, to his own folly. He shut his eyes, trying to block out the sight before him, but it seemed the moment he closed himself to one horror, another emerged from his past, taking over the darkness of his eye lids. Moaning, he clawed the earth and shuddered, remembering that night.

_The slashing, heavy rain had flattened her coat to her sides, making the brown and white she-cat practically disappear into the dark background. Tiger only saw her for the collar around her neck, sticking out of the gloomy fog like some strange guiding light, and it made his paws light and his heart soar. He wanted out of this desolate place, and any company or small comfort was better than none. He found himself blinking against the wind and rain, yowling to catch the she-cat's attention, as he turned towards her._

_Sure enough, his mother emerged from the heavy rains, startling skinny beneath her thick wet fur. Her eyes widened as she recognized him, meowed over the rain something he couldn't hear. He grunted anyway, pushing against her shoulder and guiding her with his own trembling body back the way she'd come. They both hurried forward, intent on getting out of the rain. Tiger felt his paws becoming lighter as he shared his mother's company, and he found himself almost smiling his old small smile as his paws almost flew over the ground. He couldn't wait to get back to the warmth of the cabin, away from the nightmare of the real world, and he couldn't help but think of his nice warm bed and the nice dark and empty dreams that waited him there._

_However, instead of heading straight back to the house, his mother yowled at him, causing him to pause and turn toward her. Her white tail tip disappeared inside a hollow beneath a tree stump and, though confused, Tiger gratefully followed after her. Out of the rain, with the water causing a hollow drumming sound above them, Tiger pressed up against the side of the wall and sighed in relief, pulling his tail the last length out of the rain. Their two wet bodies pressed up against each other, panting and shaking in relief. Tiger realized that he didn't mind that they weren't in the cabin, he felt better simply because he was sitting next to his mother instead of being out in the rain or anywhere near that place. He shuddered, unable to even think about its name anymore. He couldn't bring himself to. He didn't register his mother's strange silence until she shifted slightly away from him, causing him to look up in confusion._

_"Mom?" he meowed, the word new to his tongue. He hadn't called his mother mom since he was a little kit, and only once or twice before Dawn's death. He winced as he remembered how much he used to complain about the snow and the unfairness of life. It made his lips tremble and a silent moan escaped him, remembering the much more recent and terrible horror that had entered his mind._

_"Tiger," she meowed, her normally calm voice broken and strange. She sucked in a breath, as if she was fighting tears he had yet to understand. Silently, wordlessly, she pressed up against his coat, her smaller body seeming even more strange and fragile as she leaned on him. He noticed for the first time how much her body was trembling and he absently realized that she was shaking too much for it be just the rain._

_He licked her face gently, trying to hide his confusion. "Momma?" he meowed again, staring at her eyes as they reflected her inner struggle for control._

_"Is everything alright?"_

_At his confused tone, she broke down into sobs rubbing up against his strong shoulder and shaking. "I'm sorry," she meowed, tears streaming down her face and into her fur. "I'm sorry."_

_Tiger licked his suddenly dry lips, the comfort of being in her presence against draining away into terror. "Momma, please, what's wrong?"_

_She shivered and shuddered some more, taking in a shuddering breath as she slowly contained her self. "It's your kits," she murmured in to his fur, looking up at him with her pale moon eyes, clouded with pain. "I'm sorry, Tiger. I couldn't save them."_

_He rocked slightly, as if she had physically blown him over. "My kits?" he echoed, stunned._

_She nodded, rubbing her check against his fur. "I'm sorry. They're dead."_

_The dark tabby tom almost didn't hear her words._

_"Why?" he meowed, hurt and lost within his own hurt and pain. He was vaguely aware of his mother's pelt pressing up against him in comfort, licking his chest tenderly like a mother did._

_"Silver was trying to head home," she murmured, "back to the Redhouse."_

_The tom shuddered at the mention of that horrible place and a vision of white bony figures half buried in dusty dirt flashed unbidden across his eyes. He shut the sight out, curling his tail around himself protectively and feeling his own body quivering slightly. He flicked his ears toward Destiny, a silent bid for her to continue._

_"She's about ready to give birth," she continued, sorrow lacing her voice, undoubtedly seeing the emotions on his face. "The journey killed them before they even came into this world. She didn't even realize what she was doing. Oh, Tiger, I'm so sorry."_

_They both sat there in silence, shivering in the cold. He stared at the ground, eyes squeezed shut, not even realizing that he was holding his breath. A warm tongue against his face brought his gaze around, tears streaming down his face, eyes sparkling with pain._

_"I'm sorry," she meowed gently, licking his forehead lovingly, comfortingly. "Lion just wanted you to know, so you could bury your sons." When he didn't respond, she continued, a hint of worry in her voice. "Tiger, she might still want to go home again. Back to the Redhouse."_

_Tiger flinched, as if she had just told him Silver had wanted to jump off a cliff. An unknown emotion stirred deep within Tiger, one he had never felt before, and he forgot about the kits as his minded hardened beneath a sudden realization._

_"She can't go back to the Redhouse," he meowed firmly._

_Destiny blinked, worry sparkling in her eyes. "Tiger, please, you can't stop her. If she wants to go back, you should just -"_

_Tiger silenced her with a wet tail to his own lips. "No," he said, fear leaking into his voice. "To return to the Redhouse is death mother. There is only death there." He shuddered. "She can't go back, because going back would kill her. I can't let her die!"_

_The look of growing worry which flickered within Destiny's gaze was not just for Tiger's feelings about what Silver had done, before for something she was seeing in Tiger and Tiger couldn't see in himself. Tiger didn't dwell on it, instead darting back out into the rain, a new destination in mind. He had to go to the cabin and tell Silver, somehow convince her to stay._

_His paws pounded against the earth, splashing in the acid rain puddles, and for a few seconds, Tiger felt like he flew._

Tiger rose to his heavy paws, heavy with the weight of his sorrow. He had forgotten about the kits until now. He wasn't sure who had buried them, but when he thought about he realized it could only be one cat.

The realization made their conversation earlier that day hurt more. Lion cared about him enough to bury the kits. He cared enough to want to go hunting with him, even though he had proven himself to be a bad hunter. He felt sick the more he thought about, his own regret at what he done clawing his stomach up in guilt.

He clawed his way up the slope, pausing at the top, undecided. Should he head back to the cabin, after what he had said to Lion? Or should he continue to the Redhouse, to that strange horrible place which still managed to haunt his dreams? He curled his tail around his paws, fear pounding in his heart, warring with his instincts. Something had changed on this hill, and something else had changed deep within Tiger. His sons were dead. All three of them. Right here on the border to the Redhouse's territory.

Before his mind could come to a decision and before his fear could run away with him forever, Tiger heard something which had never thought he would be able to hear all the way out here in the forest. He stood up slowly, ears perked, and he began walking forward slowly, heart pounding, his paws guiding him further into the terrifying territory... towards the Redhouse.

…

Dapples blinked her eyelids open as the warmth of the high sun finally sank beneath the clouds and seeped into her thick fur. She blinked up, bleary eyed, at the silver oak tree, forgetting for a moment why she was here. The moon had long since left the sky, on its way back around to the other side of the horizon, no doubt. Still, that didn't explain why she was here. The last thing she remembered was that she was talking to the Cat and then...

She twisted around, batting at a paw to touch the queen only to discover she had miraculously disappeared. She perked her ears forward and they swiveled in their sockets, searching for some faint noise that indicated a cat was nearby. Up here, on the small ledge beneath the tree, she could easily pick out the sounds of prey in the dust and grass, though it would be difficult for them to pick her out. Up in the tree, a talon scrapped against the bark, causing Dapples to look up.

The warm light turned slightly blue as it seeped through the clouds, like on any day where the rain threatened to shine through. It bathed her silver coat in a golden glow, and Dapples almost didn't recognize her. She looked so much like someone else as she sat there, a strange thoughtful expression on her normally cold or whiny face. The calico she-cat sat up, the small movement causing Silver ear's to flick toward her and she looked absentmindedly down at the she-cat. For a moment, that thoughtful expression remained and Dapples found herself standing before a very different cat from the one she knew, and then that expression melted away to a familiar angry contempt.

"So," she said, her angry tone sounding as if she wanted to continue with some sharp accusations but she kept silent, fuming.

"So," Dapples responded, her own voice calm and soothing. _Patience_ , she told herself.

The grey and white-spotted cat seemed only to get angrier with that response. Her tail flicked and she shifted slightly, her muscles showing through her short fur as she perched on the tree branch, claws scraping against the bark. For a moment, the light caught the thin scars on Sliver's flank, Destiny's old handiwork. The calico merely stood back and watched, calmly waiting for the soft grey and white cat to continue.

Silver huffed, shifting again, uncomfortable. "Well..." she said, her voice reflecting her internal struggle to continue. Dapples didn't move, her tail curled around her paws and her ears perked forward.

The silence that stretched between them was alien and long, causing the awkwardness of the situation to mount. It didn't seem to get any better when Silver finally blurted out something she immediately regretted saying.

"Do you ever dream about those you've lost?"

Dapples' ear flick was the only sign she had heard. She kept her surprise well hidden as she thought that question over. She certainly had seen someone she had lost, but never had she dreamed about them, unless visiting the Moon Clearing counted as dreaming. She could not recall a time when she had fallen asleep. It seemed like the days merged with the nights now, with every visit to the Moon Clearing she made. Then again, she couldn't remember falling asleep beside the Moon tree.

"Yes," she said calmly, but refrained from explaining further.

Silver seemed to relax slightly at Dapples' words, but she said nothing to show her relief. Instead, she shifted again, as if trying to gather her thoughts around her to create something coherent. Dapples waited. The calico felt as if she could sit there all day, listening to whatever Silver had to say.

Silver seemed encouraged by this as she finally dropped off the branch and landed beside Dapples, crouching down opposite her. With her paws tucked up underneath her and her tail wrapped around her paws, she almost looked pregnant again. Dapples kept that thought to herself as she mimicked the posture, hoping she to seem like a companion while also being a listening ear for whatever Silver thought she needed to say.

"Do you ever dream of anyone special?"

Dapples nodded slowly. "I dreamed about my sister, or at least... I dream of what she might have looked like if she had lived."

"That sounds... nice."

The calico she-cat could feel both the wistfulness and skepticism in Silver's tone. She looked the grey-and-white she-cat over, wondering why she had bothered to ask. "Is there... something you would like to share?"

Silver gazed at the brown, gold and white she-cat with unblinking clear blue eyes. The silence stretched on for a long time, causing Dapples to feel an uncomfortable warmth beneath her fur. She slowly dipped her head to lick her chest, hoping to keep up a friendly appearance. She suddenly realized mid-lick that some small part of her did not want to appear inferior to Silver. Suddenly, Dapples understood why Raven and Hearth might have followed after her and Tiger into the forest. The regal way Silver carried herself made everyone around her hope to impress her with whatever they could do.

_Is this what her brother saw in Silver? Why he worked so long and hard to impress her while shirking his own duties?_

Before Dapples could contemplate further, Silver rose from her paws again, sighed and padded toward the tunnel entrance. Surprised, Dapples rose to follow her, her paws sending moondust flying everywhere. Hand she just lost her opportunity?

Or had she just found it?

"Silver, wait!" called Dapples, halting beside the grey and white she-cat. She gazed into the others' eyes, searching for something though she didn't know for sure herself.

"Come with me."

Silver's ears flattened in mistrust, looking Dapples up and down and giving a half-hearted curled lip. "With you? Why?"

"Because I can show you to your sons."


	5. Part 5

A chilly breeze whistled through the bony branches of leafless trees, barely stirring the carpet of brittle leaves which coated the mushy floor of the Shadowlands. Acidic rains had plastered the entire blanket into a crinkling, wrinkling mess of leaves which hid a carpet of dark and dry soil, it feeling slick and slimy as it clung to the fur of any unsuspecting passersby. The acidic smell of rain foretold the coming of a shower as well as make the lone hunter gag, nose and ears twitching in tense attentiveness, while his eyes squinted against the sting of both wind and stench. He leaped easily from exposed root to root, careful to not make a sound on the wood and stir the leaves in his passage. The cold pale glow of the sun did little to penetrate his short, thick fur, already chilled by the invisible winds.

His hunter's luck seemed to have disappeared with Tiger and his rabbit that morning, as his only prize worthy of notice was a scrawny and bony mouse with barely a watery mouthful beneath the skin. It didn't make up for the long hours he had wasted away in his half-hearted pursuit of prey and though he did hold out some hope for sneaking up on some unsuspecting vole or rabbit that might be hiding behind a tree, Lion was already headed on his merry way home, his mind preoccupied with a confusing windstorm of emotions that had never bothered to settle after that morning's accidental argument. The whole episode had shot down his heart and he had lost all interest in the hunt as it killed his mood and spirit almost completely.

A careless hind-paw slipped against dry bark, causing it to slide away into the leaves and reveal a slimy patch of disgusting bubbly tree sap still clinging to the younger wood beneath. An unfamiliar smell of rotten wood reached Lion's nose and he recoiled in disgust, back up until he posed on the roots on the opposite side of the tree, where he could hardly take a fresh breath of air through the scrawny mouse's fur. He opened his mouth and let the mouse fall for a moment, whipping his head around to catch it by the tail before the limp form struck the leaves and made noise, pausing as he lifted himself back up and balanced precariously to sniff the chilly and acidic smelling air. It was sharp and repugnant, no longer a normal scent which often shuffled around at the back of his mind, pressed in a little corner where all the useless information went to be forgotten.

He wasn't exactly sure why it chose now, of all times, to rear its ugly head through his mental doorway and force him to face it. Should he be thinking about Tiger and all that drama from this morning? His mind told him that he needed to make amends with his brother, but something in his heart told him that there was a bigger problem that he needed to face. Leaf-bare was coming quickly this year, and would perhaps last longer than any leaf-bare before, thanks to the constant showers that seemed to come out of nowhere every once and while, though mostly at night.

Lion had never gotten around to telling Tiger about his kits; the unexpected and horrifying news of the Redhouse and brought any and all conversations between Lion and Tiger to a screeching halt that night and the days afterwards as Tiger took to comforting Silver about being forced to stay at the Cabin. Lion had been lucky that Tiger had decided to go out on hunting patrols on the days afterwards, but by the time those had started, Lion had already gone back to the lean-to himself to give the three tom kits a proper burial, one he was sure his brother would think they deserved. It had rained the day he had come back to the lean-to, too, as if even the masters that controlled the rains mourned the loss of the forgotten kits and shared his vigil throughout the entire night. And, with the burial of the kits properly taken care of, Lion had put that matter to the back of his mind, hoping to give Tiger enough time to heal over his own wounds and to allow him to focus on his studies and improving on the hunting skills he had so carelessly neglected.

Granted, a part of him regretted not being there for his own kits birth, and being in his own kits presence reminded not only what he had gained that lot, but everything that Tiger never knew he could have once had. A part of him blamed Silver for her selfishness and stupidity for leaving the Cabin that night, though he did not doubt that he might have ended up doing the same thing if he had gone through what Silver had to put up with. He had learned from Blaze and Raven that Silver did not consider and might never consider Destiny to be her mother, and Lion wondered what it might be life to have lost Destiny at birth and to have never seen her ever again. Did Silver have to take charge of her small family of kits and Blaze's after her mother's death? Had she considered herself the Queen of the four of them, up until she met Destiny in the forest upon Tiger's blundering return from the Cabin?

He wasn't a she-cat; He couldn't imagine himself in her place, and he couldn't see how Silver's attitude was justified, especially after her brother had adjusted so well. Raven proved himself to be extremely determined to be a part of their little family, taking a little extra training from Lion to make up for his moons as a kittypet and always listening in on Destiny's stories even when Lion himself grew tired of them. Then again, when did Lion's actions ever explain his sister's? She-cats were a strange bunch, he mused, except for his precious Blaze.

Did she ever wonder about returning home? he wondered, suddenly terrified that he might have neglected some small part of his duty as father and mate and forget that Blaze might not be interested in staying in the woods with him. She might be just like Silver, longing to return to the Redhouse without him or worse. That thought made his eyes burn a bit more and forced those thoughts aside and took another sniff of the sharp leaf-bare air. He shifted on the branch and, after a pause to wonder whether it was really worth being stealthy at the start of leaf-bare when no real prey would be around, he crashed to the leaf ground and lifted his head over the leaves. He threw himself into a bouncing lunge through the forest, shoving great piles of leaves aside with his chest as he galloped out of the dead landscape towards home, wrinkling his noisy in disgust with each squelch of his paws in the murky soil beneath the leaves.

He came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the carpet, staring down a semi-familiar slope as leaves. Another cat had already made their way through the leaves here, dragging some form of heavy prey behind him or her, and instantly Lion assumed it was Tiger. He glanced around, trying to pick out the dark tom's tabby coat through the walls and walls of leaves. The ground beneath the slope was almost flat and clear of leaves, leaving no honest trail for Lion to track, even on his good days. Hunting was Lion's specialty and he was quiet proud of that fact, up until the point where his skills didn't win him back his brother that very morning. Flinching, Lion ducked his head down beneath the leaves, disheartened at the memory and not even perking up slightly when he caught the faint smell of rabbit. He turned his attention back into familiar territory and brought his dangling mouse with him all the way back to the human's abandoned Cabin. He paused at the entrance to the cat's home, wondering if anyone would notice his apparent lack of luck today, but he squared his shoulders and shoved his nose forward, pushing the floppy cat door aside as he slid into the belly of the cat's lair.

Almost instantly, Blaze's smaller mocha-colored sister slipped up to greet him, noticing his lack of prey almost immediately. "No luck today?" she asked, worry reflected in her amber gaze.

The mottled yellow tom dropped his catch at her feet and it hit the wooden blank with a dull thud, making Lion wince. "No, my luck was pretty bad," he meowed, "but at least Tiger caught a rabbit." Even after their episode this morning, he still felt a bit of pride for his brother's accomplishment, a great improvement to the past dark ginger tabby's hunting failures. He had expected Hearth to be ecstatic for Tiger about his recent catch, but at her lack of response he felt a bit worried. "Hasn't he brought it in today?"

"No," she meowed, "though I'm sure it was an amazing catch."

Lion's ears flickered slight; was it just him or did he detect a little wistfulness in her tone? "You could catch one, too, if you practiced a little bit more." He recalled that Hearth was the worst hunter in the clan, next to Silver, but he held out hope for his sister-in-law's future as a hunter, one that might be as good as his mate.

She flattened her ears shyly at his suggestion, obviously uncomfortable at the thought of more training. "Sure," she meowed, and quickly changed the topic. "Would you like me to take that to Blaze?"

He detected something else in her voice here, too, but he was a little bit preoccupied with his earlier realizations to allow anyone to prevent him from finding a moment alone with Blaze. "No, thanks," he meowed, picking up the prey and trotting across the short distance to Blaze's den, gratefully sliding inside and dropping the mouse next to Blaze. He sucked in the sweet aromas of his mate and milk as he curled around her tired body and lay his head across her shoulders to give her a kiss-lick on her cheek.

"Hello, Lion," she rumbled, without looking up, eyes closed and voice sounding exhausted from some emotional war Lion hadn't been there to witness.

He winced at his mate's tired voice and snuggled closer, giving her a semi-apologetic lick on the ear. "Hello, love. How have you been?"

The greeting was customary between them, though from Blaze's ear-twitch, Lion knew she had detected something from his tone. "Good," she murmured, lifting her head slightly and turning her somewhat tired gaze on him, studying for a moment. "Have something on your mind?" she asked.

Lion could tell his mate was tired and he immediately decided that what he was thinking about wasn't worth bothering her over for today. "Nothing," he meowed, shifting his gaze from her to the three twitching bundles that lay near her belly. They must have tried themselves out long before Lion arrived and he didn't doubt that Hearth had something to do with it. Except for the fact that Blaze was too tired, it would have been a perfect opportunity to bring it up.

"Lion," she meowed, pulling his thoughts back into the present. "Have you ever thought of leaving?"

The question felt like a slap to the whiskers. Lion jerked up and away from her, his voice wobbling slightly as he tried to grasp the full meaning of her words. "Leave?" he asked, startled. "Why would I ever think of leaving?" Could she have thought the same thoughts he had while he was out and about in the forest? Was she so uncomfortable her that she wanted to go back to the Redhouse?

"The forest," she meowed, a little annoyance creeping in her voice at his outburst. His jaws clicked shut and he moved forward again, as if scared that if he moved too close he'd be forcing her out the door and away from him for good, head spinning with all kinds of thoughts that didn't honestly make in sense. Did she love him enough to stay? Or was she asking him if he was going to leave her?

"...is dying," she said with such firmness that Lion found all his doubts and thoughts slipping away, replaced with confusion. He looked curiously at her and noticed absently that another she-cat had padded up behind him, crouching just out of site beyond the den mouth.

"You mean..." he began, his thoughts swarming over so many things before finally settling one one, "you wonder if I ever thought of leaving... the forest."

"It's dying, Lion," she said. "Haven't you noticed the lack of prey around here, even though it isn't leafbare yet?"

"Well, sure," he said slowly as his thoughts suddenly recalled so much more. The bark which slipped away to reveal the rotting stench of wood beneath, the dry murky soil hiding just beneath the leaves, and not to forgot the shortage of drinkable water and the death of a few of the cats because of the rain... and one cats own foolheartedness.

"The leaves fell eariler than last year," she meowed, "and from what Destiny keeps telling us, the summers keep getting shorter and hotter. I don't like it here, and I don't think we should stay and let our kits suffer their entire adult through this... especially not so close to the Redhouse."

Blaze's tongue had loosened since her talk with Hearth, though she hadn't discussed most of this with Hearth before hand. It was gap in trust that Lion was oblivious to, as his mind flipped over this new information and compared it to what he had thought this morning.

"Leaf-bare has come earlier, true, and it might be longer than any leaf-bare before it," he said slowly, gathering his stranded thoughts into one coherent whole. "Destiny has worried about this for moons now, even before you came here to be with us." So much weight carried in his thoughtful and quiet voice and, from the way Blaze looked at him attentively and expectantly, he knew she had thought about this for a while and that she was resting the entire decision on his shoulders. He would be carrying this burden with him out of the den and into whatever horrors they might face on the road or not, and it gave him a strange feeling of warmth in his chest at her deep trust in him and her faith that, if he made a decision, it would be the right one.

"I think," he said, his voice firmer now, "that Destiny has thought about this much longer than we have and that she believes it is in our best interest to leave, to find a better place filled with more prey than we could ever hope to find here. She's been telling her stories and her beliefs to us our entire life and, though I can never possibly understand every little reasoning she has, I trust her enough to say that if she says we must go than we must go." The explanation sound strong to his ears, though already his mind was beginning to pick out one major flaw with that plan. "But, considering everything we have done here," he meowed, glancing absently at the kittens snoozing beside their mother, his mate, and he let out an amused purr, "I don't believe that time will come until our kits are old enough to walk without stumbling over their own front paws."

Blaze purred, turning to lick him on the nose, her rough warm tongue brushing against his cold wet nose. "You're a great father, dear," she purred affectionately.

Lion's nose wrinkled as he said, "I will tell Destiny my decision the moment Tiger returns from hunting." At her curious gaze, he shook his head, warding her away. "He needs to hear this as much as Raven or Silver does."

His mate wrinkled her nose at the mention of the grey and white she-cat. "I wonder where Miss High-and-mighty's got to after that fiasco with Tiger a few nights ago. Haven't seen her around much."

Lion shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm sure Tiger does. He's never been far from her for very long. Heh, that brother of mine could sniff her out from the middle of a nest of Monster trails if he ever put his nose to it!"

…

"My... sons?"

Spottedkit could see the conflicting emotions dancing in Silver's eyes as the silver she-cat pulled away from the calico. Growing increasingly uncertain and unnerved with the direction this conversation was going, the young she-cat wanted to search through Dapples mind and try to divine an answer, or an inkling of _something_ , that could explain to her why Dapples was bringing up something that was obviously bringing Silver so much pain. But whatever was working through that mind of hers, no cat but StarClan knew, as Dapples stepped toward the vulnerable looking blues eyes.

"Yes, Silver. Your sons! Don't you want to see them again?"

"I-I- well, of course, but-"

"I can show them to you," Dapples promised, sounding strangely not at all crazy but certain and sure-pawed, which only served to confuse Spottedkit more and make Silver think she was crazy. What in the whole of StarClan could Dapples possibly be thinking!?

"I-I-" Silver's mind whirled behind her blue eyes, now swarming with more emotion than it had when the conversation began. Something finally seemed to click in her exploding mind, snapping her back on her mental paws faster than Spottedkit could blink. "How?"

The sudden determination in the queen's voice left Spottedkit baffled. Everything was happening too fast for Spottedkit to fully understand it.

"Then come with me."

Before Spottedkit could say anything - and in all honesty she had long ago realized that she was just along for the ride - the two she-cats entered the tunnel. For a moment, Spottedkit felt disconnected from Dapples, able to walk or run on her own, and she found herself struggling to keep up with the much larger she-cats, now white outlines in the dark of the tunnels. They reached the Moon Clearing and, though the sun had been up high for a long while, the light had turned into the familiar pale white of the moon. Stardust, moondust, and soft dirt coated the whole clearing, reflecting the familiar white rays back in their familiar way, like every time Dapples and Spottedkit had been there during the full Moon and even the New Moon. The only big difference was that Dawn no longer stood at the center of the Clearing and, instead, three familiar toms took her place. Their outline was faint and, from the way the two she-cats arrived looking around expectantly and not settling on anything, Spottedkit had the strangest feeling that only she could see them. She padded forward uncertainly, half-expecting Silver or Dapples to notice or recognize her on site, but neither of the she-cats paid her any mind, almost as if she wasn't there at all. Frowning and more than a little confused, she approached the dark grey and spotted white tom in the center.

 _"What's going on?"_ she asked, her own voice sounding alien to her, young and small, so unlike when Dapples' spoke for her.

_"Silver does not believe."_

The simple answer held so much more meaning than Spottedkit could immediately tell. _"Believe what?"_

The reddish-brown tabby tom answered her instead, his amber eyes glittering with a pain that was as deep as galaxies and wider than universes. _"In us."_

Spottedkit opened her mouth to object but stopped, looking over at their starry pelts before glancing back at the two she-cats. Silver stood back from Dapples, hesitant, as Dapples gave a blunder explanation to defend herself.

"But I visit them every night, they _should_ be here!" she exclaimed, looking around frantically. But the three toms did not appear before her, as if the very presence of the non-believer drove them from her sight. She looked around elsewhere for an explanation and her eyes settled on the glowing white moondust all around her.

"Look, you see this!"

Spottedkit could see it in her face; Silver did see, but there was something in her trying not to believe, fighting the want and desire to see her kits again and trying very hard not to leave this mad cat to her own devices. "Yes," she said, but her voice sound uncertain, and Spottedkit could practically feel the question rolling off her brain. What does the dust have to do with anything?

"You know about how the Moon Tree only glows around midnight, right?" Dapples said, her moment of uncertainty gone. "They _are_ here, Silver! The moon is shining when there is no moon!"

"We were just in the tunnels for a very long time," Silver countered, "I don't see how-"

"You're right!" Dapples almost snapped, her frustration and annoyance bubbling over and into her voice. "You _don't_ see."

It didn't matter at that moment that Dapples herself couldn't see the three toms standing there. She had come to a semi-plausible reasoning and she wasn't about to abandon her mission, not now when so much lay on the line. But, then again, what if everything she was standing up for in that moment was nothing more than a series of half-baked dreams, that even her mission itself was nothing but foolhardy nonsense she had invented for herself in a moments notice? Spottedkit could feel the doubt rolling off the calico in waves, but the older she-cat shook it aside and held firm. It was so unlike Silver in that moment that Spottedkit suddenly saw for herself the difference between someone who believed in StarClan and someone who didn't. She looked at the toms, where beside her, the largest tom had suddenly stood up, ears perked forward in anticipation. How could Silver not believe, even for a moment that her sons where there, when her sons were right there, waiting for her to open her eyes and believe! Was this what it was like for StarClan and the few cats in the world who didn't believe they could exist? It left an uncomfortable and rotten feeling in Spottedkit's small belly as she bore silent witness to the drama unfolding before her, that Silver in all her desire to see her sons again, couldn't see them when they were standing right in front of her!

 _"Not everyone can look at the world and see the touch of StarClan in it,"_ meowed the reddish-brown tabby. _"Not even my uncle could see the acts of StarClan until someone else pointed it out for him. In a way, to doubt the existence of StarClan is to divine some other reason for how and why the world came to be."_

These words flew right over Spottedkit's head. _"Huh?"_ she asked, turning away from the drama for a moment.

The brown tabby had sat up, his light grey and white brother to lie down on the dirt, his tired amber eyes watching the display before him, just as his darker and much larger brother was doing.

 _"Did you think that the world became what it is on its own?"_ he asked. _"Certainly, the cats of StarClan did not divine the whole world, some other high-power crafted those cantankerous humans."_ He scoffed at the mention of the Hairless Ones, a hint of disgust on his curled lips. _"But it is and was StarClan who created the Warrior Code in the first place and who discovered the source of all prophecy in the first place."_

 _"Source?"_ she asked, confused.

 _"You have said too much, Brand,"_ came the third cat, the one who hadn't spoken as far as Spottedkit could remember. _"Leave the kit alone. It is not her destiny to divine our abilities; that is for another."_

 _"Destiny has her work cut out for her already,"_ argued Brand.

_"Destiny isn't the one I'm referring to."_

Listening to the two toms only served to confuse Spottedkit even more and she turned away from them, hunching down and stretching out her paws before to lie down. The soft moondust served as a nice bedding as she tilted her ears forward to listen to the two she-cats.

"You don't see," Dapples continued, coming to grips with what was happening before her. Spottedkit noted that it was almost as if the three toms hadn't spoken for the last two minutes, and Spottedkit wondered if time ran differently in StarClan. "Why is it so difficult for you to believe, Silver?"

"Because this is too ridiculous!" she snapped angrily, ears flat against her skull. "You want me to believe that cats can turn into stars and hang in the night-sky for all eternity? How dull-witted do you possibly think I am?" Her lips trembled as she spat her next words. " _My sons_ are _dead_! My mother is dead! My father is dead! Can't you understand me?! _They are all dead!_ " That last exclamation came in a half-laugh, half-whimper. "They're gone, Spot!"

Dapples didn't even register the fact that Silver had just used her kit name, she was too stunned by the outburst to say anything. "But Silver..." she began, her mind grasping at straws, anything that might convince Silver otherwise.

" _Shut up!_ " the queen snapped, her body quaking in anger as she staggered toward the tunnel. "Just shut up!"

"But..." Dapples stuttered. "What about your dream?"

Silver halted at the the start of the tunnel, and her voice might have been lost in the layers of moondust if she hadn't tossed her next words over her shoulder in her anger. " _What_ dream?"

"Your nightmares."

The vague response struck a cord within Silver and she took a step back from the mouth of the tunnel as she turned back to Dapples. "Nightmares," It sounded more like a statement than a question.

"When you pressed your nose up against the Moon Tree," she said, her words becoming firm as her mind raced to make connections. "When I fell asleep by the Moon Tree, we both dreamed. It was about fire, a cat made out of fire, a forest burning, a bramble of Tigers' claw..."

_"Only fire can save the Clan."_

Spottedkit realized that someone else's voice had come out of Silver's mouth, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Brand's. The words came from all around Spottedkit and she turned her head curiously toward Brand, but he wasn't looking at her. She looked back at Silver, who seemed to be surprised at herself as she stood there.

Dapples nodded, relieved. "Only fire can save the Clan."

The two she-cats stood in silence and Spottedkit felt the air stir, as if for one heartbeat, Silver and Dapples were connected on a level neither of them could see or hear. Beside Spottedkit, Brand smiled and his larger grey brother's ears flicked.

Then something shattered the world around them. A shadow feel over the Moon Clearing and landed heavily in the middle of the clearing, causing the three phantom toms to scatter and for Spottedkit to find herself back inside Dapples. The lump of fur moved and Silver took a few steps forward, blocking Spottedkit's view of the tom.

"Tiger!"


	6. Part 6

The dark tabby's tail disappeared into the black tunnels, leaving the two she-cats in stunned silence. The white-and-grey she-cat stood by the entrance, head on her paws, and blue eyes distant. The confusing appearance and subsequent disappearance of her mate only served to confuse the poor she-cat more.

But Dapples was not confused, not anymore. The white, gold and brown she-cat stared at nothing as her mind turned over the events, struggling to digest the information and get it to work with everything else in her wasn't familiar with the events which had started playing in secret between Tiger and Lion nearly three moons ago and which had reached its climax just a few hours prior to Tiger's sudden appearance just seconds ago. The news which he had brought only served to strengthen Dapples' desire to convince Silver that Starcats were real, and it also served to weaken Silver's own strong desire to see her kits again.

"Don't you see?" Dapples murmured, padding forward until she was pressed up against Silver's pelt.

"See _what_?" snapped the queen, exhausted from the jumble of emotions which had attacked her mentally a few seconds ago.

Dapples stared at her for the longest time, unsure how to continue but knowing that this was perhaps the only time she would be able to get Silver to listen. "Hope," she meowed, praying silently that she said the right thing. After all, what good was she was a medicine cat if she couldn't teach Silver this simple message.

"Hope? For what exactly?"

Dapples noted that the snappiness had drained from her voice, and she guessed that Silver was starting to listen.

"Hope for a _better_ future," she meowed.

Silver snorted. "How does this ensure a better future?"

Dapples stood and padded away, a mysterious quality in her voice. "A future where fire can save the Clan. That there can be a Clan for fire to save."

"Stop speaking in riddles. What Clan?"

She picked her words carefully.

"Destiny's Clan."

Those blue eyes gave a slow blink. "Destiny has no Clan," she growled.

"Oh?" asked Dapples. "She doesn't? Than what do you call this little pack of ours? A family? Because that's what a Clan is. And if we aren't a Clan, then _what_ are we?"

A sudden feeling overcame Dapples, a feeling of completion, that somehow the conversation had suddenly ended and she wasn't exactly who or what had ended it. She rose to her paws and entered the tunnel, tossing over her shoulder; "Family is more than just blood, Silver."

…

Lion rose out of Destiny's den, carrying the mouse in his jaws. His muscles rippled as he padded across the cabin toward Destiny and her new apprentice, Raven. Lion noted immediately that Raven looked incredibly happy, his blue eyes shining as he listened to whatever fanciful story that Destiny told. Raven's small happiness made Lion's heart sink as he thought of his own bad luck, before he shook it off and offered Destiny the small piece of prey.

"Thank you, dear," she meowed, accepting the morsel and quickly swallowing it in one full bite. She licked her lips, savoring the taste of mouse. "I don't think I've had mouse all day."

Raven's expression said otherwise. "You just ate one this morning."

"I did?" she meowed, surprised. "I don't remember."

Lion's ear flicked and his lip curled in amusement. "Speaking of remembering," he said, "did anyone notice Silver or Tiger around? I haven't seen either one since I went off patrol."

Raven's eyes narrowed. "She must be at the moon tree. She likes to sleep there sometimes, hoping to see her kits again." His expression turned sorrowful for a moment, before Destiny's words brought him back.

"Leave her be, then. She needs the rest." The old queen looked over at Lion. "Why did you want to speak with her, Lion?"

The yellow tom settled down beside her. "I actually wanted to call a meeting. It's about time we all started talking about what we are going to do once the kits grow up."

Raven's tilted his head. "Meaning?"

"Meaning he wants to know whether we should leave the forest soon," Destiny guessed, catching her son's surprised look. "Oh, we've all been talking about it. Seems only natural since the leaf-fall started rolling in earlier than normal." She tsked. "I should have left the moment you had grown up, Lion."

"But then we wouldn't have meet Raven," Lion pointed out, before adding. "Or Blaze."

Destiny hummed to herself as Raven gave a nod. The white and black tom flicked his ears. "What exactly was your plan, Lion? Do we leave when they are all four leaf turns old or did you have an idea of how many moons?"

Lion shook his head. "I don't know. I didn't think that far."

"Six moons should be enough," said Destiny absently, flicking her tail. "Kits stop stumbling around at that time."

Lion nodded, relieved. "That's three moons away."

"If we don't get anymore kits," Raven pointed out. "The first time Tiger and Silver did it, they weren't expecting kits. What if that happens again?"

Destiny snorted. "I think Silver has learned her lesson with that."

The two toms nodded in agreement, while Lion added "So has Tiger." A sorrowful silence filled the air around them, choking off the conversation for an uncomfortably long moment.

"And Hearth hasn't shown an interest in a free tom," Destiny said finally. "So there should be no worries on her end."

Lion stared at the ceiling for a moment. "Then, it should be fine for us to leave in a few moons," he meowed, looking at Raven. "Unless I'm missing something."

"Yes, you are," the other tom meowed, "Destiny can't take that journey now."

Said queen gave him a stern glare. "I am just fine," she meowed. "I will be ready to leave when you are, son."

Lion nodded. "Then it's settled. Once Tiger and the she-cats get back, we can have a real family discussion about it."

…

Tiger growled in frustration as he burst from the tunnels, right at the base of the Moon Tree, sending leaves and dust flying everywhere. They settled in the air like flakes of snow, twirling on a semi-lazy path to the Earth, while dust clung to his fur. He ignored it, turning back towards the tunnels and charging through the dark abyssal realm with no hesitation. His whiskers told him when he brushed too closely to the wall and his paws guided him to his destination; the Cabin.

His arrival startled the three cats and they reacted with varying levels of startled. Raven gave a hiss before he settled back onto the ground, while Lion took a few more moments to flatten his fur and lick himself in his embarrassment. Destiny remained unfazed, giving Tiger a very stern frown.

"Do you plan to make a habit of this?" she meowed gruffly.

The dust-covered tabby frowned in confusion, momentarily forgetting his purpose. "What do you mean?"

"She means that you look like a ghost," Raven supplied.

"A Starcat," Destiny agreed, absently flicking her ears.

Lion merely flattened his ears and grunted, settling down on the wood.

Tiger frowned at that but didn't bother to shake the dust out of his fur. "Mom, we need to talk." He glanced at the other two. "Alone."

Destiny frowned, sniffing slightly. "Not in that condition. Go clean yourself up and then we'll talk."

Tiger flattened his ears for a second, before perking back up again, hopeful. "You'll meet me out in the forest, right?"

The old queen nodded. "Of course, if you think it's best."

Tiger nodded in return before slinking away, back through the tunnels and towards the Moon Tree, ignoring the puddle of moss gotten water which Hearth had used earlier. It was the only water source that was not filled with choking dust, which often filled the puddles beneath the tree. Since the purposes was to clean off the dust and not dirty up another puddle, he headed for the one already polluted.

Destiny turned to the two toms, apologetically. "We'll have to have that meeting later, I'm afraid."

Lion dipped his head, while Raven murmured. "One more day cannot possibly hurt us, Mom."

…

Silver gazed out over the Moon Clearing, watching the strange unearthly silvery glow return to the grassy area now that Tiger was gone. She felt a strange prickling in her pelt, as if something was watching her, but when she checked the brambles above, they were as thick as ever, except for the small part which Tiger had crashed through. An extra shaft of light peered through there, but it contrasted differently from the silvery moonbeams. It was bright and yellow, almost like the golden eye of a cat, peering into the secret spot in search of unnamed secrets. The grey-and-white she-cat sighed.

"Why am I here?" she asked no-one, already knowing the answer.

Eversince her outburst so long ago, when Raven had brought up that discussion about the moon and stars, Silver had been trying to force the thoughts away. She didn't know why they kept nagging at her; she had never considered herself one to think of the afterlife.

She had been bothered that her brother had accepted that idea simply because he had started to view Destiny as his mother. It didn't make any sense to her. She cherished the memory of her mother with her, long ago and almost too distant to recall. Sometimes Silver pretended to remember every little detail of her, hoping that pretending might actually bring the beautiful young she-cat back to her. Her mother hadn't deserved to die at such a young age, if she had indeed died. Silver wasn't even sure of that.

But Destiny _wasn't_ her mother. That much was obvious. So, why did she have to listen to that old fleabag prattle on and on about something which never concerned her?

But what if it did concern her? Not in the sense that it nagged at her every waking moment and that she actually began to preach about it, but in the sense that she might die one day and discover that it was real. What then?

Well, she obviously hadn't done anything seriously wrong, so she couldn't possibly go to any bad place, even if there was an afterlife. She was pretty much secured in that respect.

Still, a part of her missed her sons and wished that there was someway she could see them. Someway she could be there. But if they had died and gone to the afterlife, what was preventing her from joining them after her own death?

_'Family is more than just blood, Silver.'_

_What had she meant by that?_ she wondered.

Ugh, Dapples was starting to sound like Destiny. It didn't seem right that that old loon was planting her ideas in someone as impressionable as Dapples, or Raven for that matter. Silver's lip curled in disgust. They gave in so easily to her. But she wouldn't do that. Silver was too strong to give in so easily.

 _But what about your kits_? came the unwanted thought. She felt unnerved by it, shifting uncomfortably on the moondust and feeling her fur prickle. She brought a paw up to wash, looking down at the speckles of moondust. She licked her paw and winced at the taste.

For something that didn't smell like anything, the moondust was certainly bitter.

…

Dapples' ear flickered as she registered the distant sound of water splashing soundlessly on dust. A red form pawed away at the grime in the puddle, a half-hearted sneer of disgust curling his lips as he flicked more of the offending moondust out of the water. Even as Dapples registered the look, Tiger noticed her coming and his face suddenly became neutral.

"Hello," he greeted.

"Hello," she responded, dipping her head slightly.

It was awkward speaking with her brother. They didn't exactly talk much, and beyond living in the same house together for their entire lives, they didn't exactly know each other very well. However, this was the perfect opportunity for Dapples to figure out what he had said to Silver.

"So, what news did you bring Silver today?" she asked innocently. "She certainly seemed better."

The red tabby didn't speak for the longest moment, before finally stalking up out of the puddle and sitting down. He sat up again almost immediately, white dust covering his rear. He growled in annoyance, causing Dapples to muffle her laugh. It reminded her so much of that time so long ago, when they had left the old home to come here. He used to complain a lot, but now...

"Nothing really," he said, as if forcibly dismissing whatever thought was on his mind. "Just something I sniffed around the Redhouse."

Dapples gave her brother a strange look. "You went back?"

"Not initially, no."

"What? What could compel you to go back there? I thought you said that place was filled with death?"

Tiger nodded slowly. "Yes, I did."

"But... what?" she asked, annoyed. "You're hiding something."

"...It's difficult to explain."

She sighed, sitting down. "I've got time." Then she looked over his wet pelt. "And apparently so do you."

He gave a sigh.

"Apparently."

…

Silver glanced over at the golden shaft of light, the last question hanging heavily in her mind. She had stopped washing almost immediately after starting, unable to taste the horrible moondust. She stood up and began to pace, avoiding the golden puddle of light as if it carried some strange disease. She marched up and down, almost attempting to climb the slopes before giving up and returning to pacing. She caste uncertain glances in the golden light's direction and finally stopped moving all together.

She could not bring herself to leave.

Who was she doing this for? Her family? Her kits? Her brother? Her mother? Her head was starting to throb and her heart began to hurt. She was growing increasingly torn.

"Why am I here?" she repeated, gazing around. "I'm not one of _them_. I never was. I almost abandoned them, you know."

She was talking to empty air, she realized, but she felt slightly better as she did it so she didn't stop herself. Even though she knew no one was listening, it was still good to finally get it out into the open.

"I was never good at any of this," she confessed. "Even when I led them into the woods, I knew I didn't know anything about it, but I had to act it, y'know? I promised my mother I would be strong. I would be strong for Raven.

"But lately, I feel as if they don't need me anymore. Even when Tiger led us into the woods, I was useless. I didn't know what I was doing. How could I? I've never been in the woods before."

She felt better, though she knew she was probably not explaining herself very well. She had never thought about it before, but the words kept falling from her mouth.

"Blaze is always so brave. Everyone always listens to her when she starts talking, even if she was always a bit blunt. She never liked Tiger; I guess that's why I liked him. He didn't like her either; I could tell. With Tiger around, I had control. He deferred to me, in a way, and I guess they call it love. I think he loves me; he always says he does."

She frowned at her paws, not even looking up anymore.

"I'm not even sure that he loves me."

" _He does._ "

…

Tiger left the safety of the Cabin and sniffed the air warily, catching the distinct smell of his mother. He padded forward, glancing around at the undergrowth and perking his ears toward the sound of anything moving in the forest. He quickly spotted his mother hiding behind a bush, but he shook his head and twitched his tail, beckoning his mother further into the forest. They walked for a short while, covering a good distance before Tiger found a nice shady spot beneath a bush and curled up in its dark shadow. The old queen joined him, and the leafy greens acted as a sort of barrier to the outside world, preventing them from being seen and from seeing anyone else. She murmured softly.

"What's wrong, dear?"

The red tabby flicked his ears and they swiveled nervously around in their sockets. "I heard something new today," he said finally.

Destiny looked mildly alarmed as she searched his amber eyes for a clue to what he was hinting at. "Is it dangerous?" she asked instantly.

He frowned. "No, it's definitely not dangerous."

The old queen relaxed, giving her chest a lick and flattening the fur there. She gave Tiger a hard look. "Then for what reason did you drag me all the way out here for?"

Tiger shifted in his excitement, as a wide grin covered his face.

"I heard a noise," he said slowly, "a sound I have never heard in the forest before. I followed it to it's source, all the way up at the Redhouse."

"Redhouse?" Destiny echoed. "Why did you go there? Didn't you say it was dangerous?"

Tiger's eyes narrowed. "Why does everyone keep saying that?" he meowed mildly annoyed. "Yes, I did, but _listen_."

She nodded slowly. "Go ahead."

…

When Silver turned, she half-expected Dapples to be standing there, but there was no one. She turned around again, looking for the source of the sounds.

"Hello?" she meowed, perking her ears forward and listening for a sound. The world remained strangely quiet.

"I must be hearing things," she murmured to herself. "Where was I? Ah, yes. We got lost in the forest. I'm sure if Destiny hadn't found me, we would have been going around in circles forever."

She paused to lick her fur, frowning at the gaps which marked where Destiny had given her some tough love. She smirked slightly.

"I guess I deserved it in a way."

" _I'd think so._ "

"Excuse me?"

Silver didn't move this time, half-expecting the voice to dissipate again.

" _You're excused_ ," came the short laugh. It sound like a tom's voice, rich and filled with mirth.

"Who's there?" she demanded, standing and looking around.

" _Oh, wow, she's finally noticed us._ "

" _Shh, Bark._ "

" _Hello, Silver. Recognize us?_ "

She stared hard, but she saw no one. No one, except for the small calico lying in the summer sun. The young she-cat looked bored lying there, and Silver couldn't help but notice that her coat was brown and gold and white, faded as if almost invisible, with tiny glowing lights in her pelt.

"Who..." she said, approaching the young she-cat cautiously. "...are you?"

Realizing that she being talked to, the young cat stirred. " _Hello_ ," she meowed uncertainly, her voice carrying with the same strange distant effect of the three toms.

" _I'm Spottedkit_."


	7. Part 7

A mist had begun to fall over the forest as weather patterns made their strange dance across the sky. Familiar black clouds rumbled overhead, but they were not think enough to drop anything except a light, stinging spray. Tiger had finished his short tale, and he curled up in the cramped space, tucking his paws beneath his chest and shifting slightly, waiting for the verdict.

In all honesty, the queen didn't know what to say to it. She had never before come across a situation like this and it had almost thoroughly stumped her.

Destiny was clever and witty, and she understood that a decisive action needed to be made. She pawed through the information in her mind for a few seconds more, trying to come up with a different answer before giving a long sigh, stalling for time.

"I do not believe..." she began, searching for words, "that now is a good time to bring them in. How old did you say they were?"

"I don't know, but they are bigger and a lot less clumsy than Blaze's kits," he stated.

She nodded, staring at her paws as her mind drifted elsewhere. She knew that Lion and Raven were already talking about leaving in a few weeks, and she also knew that hunting was increasingly scarce, if Lion's lack of prey was anything to go by. She suddenly gave him a strange look. "You stopped hunting... for this?"

"I-I... in a way," he said, hurriedly.

She blinked, bemused. "In a way? Tiger, our family cannot survive without every single scrap of prey we can find. We might have to start hunting around the Moon Tree for food when the snow starts falling."

Her son flattened his ears, chastised, but a stubborn line had formed on his lips. "But what about... _them_?" he asked.

She shook her head, eyes gleaming but mouth in a firm line. "You should have visited them on your own time, Tiger. For now, you need to catch us food." She rose, but paused mid-step towards the entrance, turning to growl. "And focus _only on that_." She stared at him and he shrank slightly, ears plastered to his head. "You can tell Silver this later."

He flinched visibly at that but Destiny had already crouched at the entrance to the tree stump, looking out at the forest and listening for prey. She looked back at him, her expression softened. "Don't worry, Tiger. We'll save them. But for now, I think your brother wants to begin his family meeting."

…

" _I think it's time you should go._ "

"Go?" Silver echoed, having arranged herself comfortably beside the Starcat. She looked over her shoulder, mind shifting from the impossible future she was learning from Spottedkit to the mysterious and inescapable present. "Why?"

" _I don't know, but it's important._ "

The grey-and-white she-cat stared at her, uncomprehending, as the she-cat started to get up to leave.

"Wait!"

Spottedkit paused mid-step, heading towards the tunnels. Silver bounded up to her side, suddenly unsure. "Where are you going?" she asked. "Don't you have a moonbeam or something to hunt in?"

Spottedkit laughed. " _No, I don't have one. I'm not dead yet, remember?_ "

That statement only caused Silver to frown. "Then where are you going?"

" _To find Dapples,_ " the young cat responded simply.

"Is she like your best friend?"

" _My ancestor, actually,_ " she said, before stopping. " _Oops._ "

"Ancestor?" Silver echoed. "That's why you both look so much alike." She preened a moment, patting herself on the back for a moment at her semi-historical discovery. "But how can she have kits? Tiger's got me, Lion has Blaze, so that means she doesn't have any males."

" _Aren't you forgetting Raven?_ " Spottedkit looked surprised and confused.

"My brother is more interest in flying squirrels than any of this romance nonsense," she rumbled, annoyed.

Spottedkit flicked her ears without comment. " _Well, good-bye._ "

"Good-bye?" she started. "But there are so many questions I have yet to ask!"

" _Then ask Dapples,_ " Spottedkit said, her fur ruffled. " _She's your medicine cat_."

Silver stopped and stared, frozen as she watched the starcat disappear into the dark tunnels. "What's a 'medicine cat'?" she blurted to empty air.

…

They watched Destiny disappear outside, her white-tipped tail vanishing beyond the cat door. Lion was silent, contemplating, before a polite cough drew his attention to Raven. The black and white tom had a smirk on his face, which bothered Lion.

"What?"

"I find it funny that we all start the kits right now."

Lion flicked his ears, annoyed. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you haven't even named them yet," he pointed out. "And yet you're already talking about taking them to some far off land on a possibly dangerous journey."

The yellow tom was now more than slightly irritated. "Why should one affect the other?"

Raven flattened his ears. "I mean to say that you are afraid, Lion." He flicked his tail to indicate that he wasn't done. "You want to leave here because Silver's kits died, but you haven't named your kits yet. It's almost as if you are afraid to lose them."

"Of course I'm afraid," Lion rumbled, confused. "I'm not sure I understood you."

"If you had named them," Raven said, "you would be able to tell them apart, you would give them separate identities, they would suddenly each become special in their own way, and you would be more hurt if you lost them."

Lion stared. "What?"

He received a glare from the blue-eyed tom. "Don't play stupid," he growled, and Lion couldn't help but think of Destiny, when she snapped at him for doing something dumb. That thought made him flatten his ears in annoyance.

"Lion, do you want your kits to die nameless?"

The father looked momentarily angry. Lion had been the one to suggest naming Tiger's kits before they were buried - an inane whim which Raven had readily agreed to. Since Silver had been the mother, both toms had waited for her to wake up before suggesting the thought to her. Raven had told her, Lion remembered, that giving them names would make them live longer not only in memory but also in the Stars and Silver had grudgingly agreed. One thing led to another, and Lion had felt more than satisfied when he finally buried them.

The yellow tom dropped his head into his paws. "No," he said, mournfully.

"Then stop delaying it," urged Raven. "Name them today. Now or after the meeting, but don't wait until tomorrow." Raven flicked his ears to the ceiling, where muted sunlight filtered through the shingles and dark clouds. "They may be gone by then."

Lion flinched, but remained silent, stewing over this bought of wisdom before chuckling. "I think you've become a male Destiny," he teased slightly.

Raven purred, fur fluffing up slightly at the praise, but the sound of a cat entering the cabin stopped them both as Destiny returned with a rather put-out Tiger. Destiny gave them a nod, signalling that she was ready, as she passed slipping into the queen's den to inform Hearth and Blaze of the meeting. Raven quickly excused himself as he turned to the tunnels, presumably to find Dapples and Silver, and he was not gone long. Both Dapples and Silver arrived at the cabin, causing Lion to step toward the center of the Cabin so that the others could gather around him. Destiny flicked her tail, a silent gesture for Lion to begin.

Lion nodded. "I think I should get straight to the point. How many of you have been thinking about leaving the Shadowlands?" A few meows confirmed that Lion was not alone in his musing. He flicked his tail for silence before continuing. "Raven, Destiny, and I have just spoken of this. We believe the best time to leave when the kits turn six moons."

"That's four moons away," Dapples said. "That's too long."

"Agreed," echoed Silver. "We should wait only two. The kits will have thicker coats and will be able to carry them much easier than if they were still six moons old."

Lion flicked his ears in surprise, but decided not to comment, instead turning to look a Hearth and Blaze. "And you?"

"If we do leave," said Blaze, "we should not go about making plans on the assumption that our journey will be a short one. We don't know what's out there. It could be worse than here."

"Or it could be better," said Tiger. "And any place is better than being near the _Redhouse_ all winter." He hissed the name out in undisguised hatred, the emotion surprising Lion for a brief moment before his brother continued. "Though I have no clue to when we should leave." He looked at Destiny, clearly meaning he would go with whatever she decided.

The yellow tom nodded at his brother before looking at his mate. "It seems you're outvoted, my love."

Blaze grudgingly nodded while Hearth laid down behind her, slightly disappointed but understanding.

"Where would we go?" asked Hearth, sounding both mournful and lost.

"South," said Raven, firmly. "Away from the Redhouse."

"Deeper into the forest?" Hearth said, shocked. "But the forest is _running out_ of prey."

"The prey will return come green-leaf," Raven assured her. "Like it did last green-leaf."

"And we'll be searching for a forest full of Moon Trees," murmured Destiny. "Where the leaves remain green for all of summer and the squirrels and mice come out even when the rain falls."

Lion couldn't help but imagine of massive brown trunks with green leaves that reflected the Moon's glorious rays almost perfectly, with prey rustling loudly beneath the tree roots, and it made his stomach rumble. He remembered the Greenhouse's bountiful supply of untouched fat rodents and wondered what it would be like to have a whole forest full of so much prey. His mouth started to water and he licked his lips, turning to address an audience of equally hungry faces.

"We'll have to start hunting the prey around the Moon Tree soon," Tiger said. "And we don't know how much we'll have before the four months is up."

"We may starve," said Blaze, thinking of her kits.

"We won't die," Silver said firmly. "We may eat less for a few days, we may have to eat bones, but we won't starve. We won't die." Her eyes gleamed with inner fire as she looked at Hearth, like a cat who had been lost her entire life and now had found her place. Lion vaguely recalled Silver once leading the small crew out into the forest, to doom or not, and he suddenly was worried that the ambitious and vain cat would do so again. Would her desire end the group for good? He shook that thought away, uncomfortable as his old feelings of dislike of the she-cat rose out of nowhere to latch onto this observation, whispering words of how wrong she was for the clan.

"We are survivors," said Silver, the light of fire in her eyes momentarily caused Lion to be distracted from his darker thoughts. If only Silver could be filled with such fire all the time, then she might actually have a chance of leading the Clan. He shook that thought away. Surely, with Silver in charge, their family would be led to disaster.

Tiger purred loudly in approval at his mate's words, and Dapples smiled beside him. They both seemed so proud of Silver that, for a moment, Lion didn't know what to think.

"So, it's settled," said Lion, carefully keeping his thoughts and feelings to himself, bottled up deep inside. "We'll wait all four months and survive on Moon Tree prey. Then, we'll leave."

…

"I may be leaving earlier than that."

Lion looked up from his rabbit leg and licked his lips. He had been so distracted with his thoughts of Silver and the strange reaction in her eyes that he didn't even register what Raven said. "What?" he asked.

The black and white tom dropped between the planks and landed inside the small den. It was a den made for Raven, Dapples, Tiger, Silver and Hearth, since none of them had mates, but Dapples often spent the night in the tunnels doing Starcat-knows-what, and Hearth often spent her own nights outside or inside the queen's den. Silver and Tiger had found another secret den away from the rest, probably attempting to have another litter, if Lion should hazard a guess. Raven was often alone in it at night, with Lion and Tiger to visit only after hunting patrols.

"I said," Raven repeated, an amused crooked smirk on his face, "that I might be leaving earlier than four months."

"Oh?" said Lion, not sure how to respond. He admitted to himself that he wasn't really expecting that and it came as more than just a surprise. A part of him understood why he might leave; Raven was more of an outside than Dapples was, quiet and contained and often away from the main group, watching Dapples and Destiny from afar. Lion had thought that that wouldn't matter; Raven was a natural hunter. He could move through the forest like a shadow, drop down from the trees and pounce on any rabbit unfortunate enough to stray beneath, and his silent paws and mostly black pelt caused him to disappear easily into the night, catching any nocturnal prey unawares. The only problem with Raven was that he loathed killing anything himself, and often had Hearth or Dapples nearby to finish the job.

If not for the fact that the family would starve if Raven didn't hunt, Lion was half-convinced that the tom would be doing everything but hunt and fight. He kept his focus on the conversations between Dapples and Destiny, whose group he had only more recently joined. That had cost them Raven's time as a hunter, which meant less time on the fresh-kill pile. Lion promised himself to have a word with Destiny or Dapples regarding hunting patrol proceedure - and Tiger too, before he did something stupid and had another litter. They needed to focus on feeding what mouths they had now, and not having more kits and more mouths to feed.

That thought might have caused him to blush in embarrassment a few weeks earlier, especially since he had a very successful litter and Tiger and Silver had lost theirs, but the harsh approach of deep winter had harden his heart to that. He was right, he was sure, but if only he could convince the others to see it.

Raven settled down beside him, drawing Lion's attention and returning his thoughts to the matter at paw. "What brought this up?"

The lithe hunter stretched and licked his prickling chest fur, a sure sign that he was slightly nervous. "Well, I've been having... dreams, _urges_ that are telling me to go south."

The yellow tom flicked his ears. "So that's why you said that," he murmured thoughtfully, earning a confused head-tilt from the other tom. He explained; "At the meeting, you told everyone that we should go south when we start to move."

"Oh, I didn't notice," said Raven, slightly amazed. "And it's not really south. More like south-west, and only until I reach a certain place. Then, I think I should be heading straight north, to the Square Clearing."

"Square... Clearing?" Lion echoed.

"Yes. I don't exactly know where, but I know it when I see it."

"How far is it?"

"About a two moon journey."

Lion's ears flicked as he looked at the black-and-white in surprise. "That long? How will be able to track you?"

"I don't think you are suppose to. Dapples will be there to lead you."

"Dapples?"

"Yes."

"Bu-but," he said, grasping for words, tail-tip dancing in agitation, "can you survive that long?"

"I don't know. Never tried."

"...when will you leave?"

"Two moons, maybe three. Before you guys leave but after Dapples is finished training me."

"You mean, until Destiny is done training you."

"Yeah, I guess."

"You _guess_?"

Raven's fur prickled in discomfort.

"She's not... refusing to train you... is she?" Lion asked, surprised. He tried to imagine what could have convinced Raven that Dapples was his only option. How bad was Destiny's mental state if she refused to train Raven? It was the last place in their little family Raven could possibly belong. Was this why the tom was leaving? He felt rejected by Destiny, his adopted mother?

"No, no, no, no," Raven assured him. "It's different, and sort of hard to explain."

Lion blinked, but nodded his acceptance.

"Have you named your kits?"

The sudden change in conversation made Lion blink and flatten his ears.

"You should do it," said the other tom.

Lion frowned, not wanting to confront the confusing jumble of emotions which always seemed to be present whenever he spoke about his kits, and he tried to dance around the question. "Aren't you going to tell anyone you're leaving?"

"I did."

"Who?"

"You, obviously."

At Lion's expression, Raven gave an amused purr. "I've told Dapples, too, but we plan on telling everyone else when I'm good and ready to go."

"All because of a dream..." Lion growled. It was lunacy! What could possibly compel Raven, or Dapples or Destiny to act on the whims of a dream?

"Yep," Raven confirmed. "And your uncle."

"My uncle?"

"Yes."

A few irritating moments of silence cause Lion to shift uncomfortably. "You've met my uncle," he deadpanned.

"Yes. In my dreams."

"Really."

Raven's eyes narrowed. "Do I sense disbelief?"

"I don't know. I've never considered the fact that I might have an uncle."

Raven's ear twitched in amusement. "His name is Russet, by the way."

"Hm."

"You have the same coat pattern."

As if having forgotten what his coat looked like, he glanced over at his flank. "Really?"

"Yes. And speaking of names..."

"I know."

"You can't hold that off forever."

"I know."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

"I don't know."

Raven sighed. "How can you not know?"

"Since when did you talk so much?" Lion asked.

"Since when did you start avoiding questions?" Raven shot back.

They stared at each other, fur ruffled, before Lion broke his gaze with a sigh.

"I've been avoiding a lot of things recently," Lion admitted. Raven said nothing, ears perked, the perfect picture of somecat willing to listen. Lion cracked a smile. "I can't help it, especially when I'm scared of what's going to happen."

"Ever since Tiger's kits, right?"

"Right," Lion said, relieved that Raven was catching on.

Raven sighed. "I know how you feel. Half the time I don't know what to say when Dapples and Destiny expect me to ask them questions. They both seem to have an answer to everything, even though sometimes the answer doesn't make any sense to me, and it seems only right I should respond in kind, but my tongue gets stuck in my throat and the speech gets jammed into the back of my mind, inaccessible. Sometime I think there aren't any question to ask at all and that their expectations are completely unreasonable."

Lion looked surprised. "You mean..." he began, his mind whirling. He had expected Raven to fall into that lifestyle like he fell on top of his prize rabbit. He laughed, rumbling, "I wasn't expecting _that_."

Raven gave a crooked grin. "Yeah, but I'm willing to learn."

"I wish you the best of luck with that, brother. Honestly, everything they say confuses me now. I don't know what true or not."

Raven bumped Lion on the shoulder, playfully. "Don't think too much about it, it only causes a headache. Sometimes, it's just a feeling. Like being able to tell right and wrong. You simply know."

"Uh-huh, I guess that makes sense." His expression told Raven otherwise.

Raven chuckled. "I'll try to explain it better later."

"Later?" Lion echoed.

"Yeah. After you've named your kits."

"You're not going to leave that alone, are you?"

"Nope."

Lion sighed. "Fine. I'll name them tonight, and then I'll announce it tomorrow." He squinted at Raven. "Happy?"

The black-and-white tom simply purred smugly, earning a playful bat on the shoulder. This only made him purr louder.

"Scare off all the prey, why don't you?" Lion teased.

…

Nightfall was almost pitch black in the Shadowlands. The moon was a black hole in the sky, covered by large shredded clouds, hiding all that remained of the stars from view. As Lion spoke with Blaze on the subject of naming their kits, Silver emerged from her own little den opposite them and hidden in between the cracks of the floor board. She hesitated at the cat door, ears turned to the sound of murmuring lovers in the queen's den and snoring sleepers that hid in their own dens beneath the wood planks. When she had determined that no one would be aware of the departure, she nosed her way through the entrance and padded away into darkness.

But to say no one had heard would have been entirely wrong. Two pale moon eyes blinked in the darkness as a second, stiffer body made her way across the wood planks to the cat door. She paused to sniff at the entrance, before pushing her way painfully through, into the night.


	8. Part 8

Rain battered down on the roof high overhead, the ominous splatters of acidic water causing the grey tabby she-cat to duck down, ears pinned to her head. Worried pale yellow eyes gleamed out of twisted shadows as she crept through the hallways, glancing occasionally over her shoulder, ears perked. She paused every once and while in the dark shadows, sniffing the ground carefully and listening for sounds of approaching Monsters.

That was her name for them; the monsters. They spoke like twolegs and walked like twolegs, but they were not friendly like twolegs - or at least, not like her twolegs. They did not rub her belly or pet her ears, but kept their distance and watched her while constantly writing down things on their strange white pads. She found it more of a irritation at first, an annoyance that could be easily ignored; after all, she and her kits were fed with the normal wet food.

But that had changed. They weren't given wet food anymore, but dead things. Mice, rats, moles, and vermin that looked like it had been scraped off the dark trails after a Rumbling Thing had run it over. It smell strongly of the dark trail, and if not for her kits, she would have refused to eat any of it and let her milk go dry. She ate it for the entire time her kits were nursing, but then her food source had changed again. Live mice were put out in flimsy cages near her food bowl, squeaking and nosing about in their irritating fashion and causing her ears to burn and her stomach to gurgle. She had not known what to do at first, but a nudge of hunger from her belly had compelled her to do something, and that something turned out to be the final straw.

She had to kill the mouse.

' _A perfectly respectable house cat does not stoop to the level of wildcats, no matter anyone might say or try and convince her to do_ ,' were the famous last words of her own mother. But she did not think so; she would rather eat a live mouse than let her kits starve. Even though in the course of killing the mouse, she was also teaching her kits to act more like wildcats than the respectable house cats she wanted them to be. But sacrifices had to be made in this house in order to survive the twoleg, whom she would never call her master.

Golde slipped out of the hallway and across the dark and featureless living room toward the back door, barely hesitating as she forced her slim body out the cat door and onto the dusty back patio. Her pale yellow eyes instantly adjusted and took in the sight of the world before, of dark greys and greens and puddles, of a raining world that quickly lightened as the small shadow stopped. Her kits had already deemed it okay to play out in the yard and Golde could not raise her voice to call them back, for risk of alerting the twoleg in the chair to her presence. She snuck around behind it, silently slipping beneath the decorative wood fence of the patio and dropping the three tail lengths to the wet backyard. She immediately ducked underneath the patio, creeping forward carefully beneath the boards so she could get a clear view of the two tumbling toms.

She was about to call to them when she heard something move behind her and she whirled around, fur spiking in all directions and claws outstretched. A third kit, bigger than the other two, looked at her with large haunted blue eyes that blinked innocently in the darkness beneath the patio.

"Hello," the stranger meowed, and Golde recognized her voice as female. "Are you the new cat who lives here?"

"Yes." Golde slowly sheathed her claws and gave her fur a few calming licks, flattening it down. "And you are?"

"Speckle," came the soft meow. "I've been down here since they took my mother and brother away."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Golde meowed, before perking up slightly in alarm. "Took them away?"

The she-cat nodded solemnly, pain in her eyes. "My brother was so young, too," she said, her voice cracking. "Momma tried to stop it but..." She shook her head and shut her eyes, her mind suddenly elsewhere.

Golde realized instantly that this must have been what happened to the house cat before her, and she was suddenly overcome with a strong urge to call her kits to her. She saw them out in the dying rain, oblivious to everything else and tussling roughly in the dirt. The largest of them, the dark grey tabby, had pinned his black brother to the muddy ground and clamped his mouth gently around his throat as the smaller tom thrashed beneath him and suddenly lay still, giving off a fake groan of death. The larger jerked his head back and yowled in triumph, a yowl which attracted the attention of the twoleg. It calmly continued to make notes on its white pad, momentarily taking its eyes off the kits. Golde took that opportunity to call to her kits and urge them beneath the patio. The larger gave her a strange look while the black one instantly got up and almost gratefully hurried over to join his mother beneath the patio.

"Hai Mom!" he greeted, pausing at the entrance in surprise as he looked over the other she-cat. "Who are you?"

Golde shushed him and reached out, dragging the black tom beneath the patio. The larger tom had arrived a moment behind him and quickly followed his plump brother underneath. Golde looked up and over at the twoleg, who was still scribbling on its pad. She flicked her tail at Speckles, brushing the tip against the other cat's nose and startling her and snapping her out of whatever dark dreams she had fallen into.

"Speckle, take us to wherever you were hiding before," she instructed. The she-cat nodded and turned around, her pelt flashing with stripes of color, before disappearing altogether. Golde flicked her ears forward at her two sons and the black immediately went forward, tail high and eager. The dark tabby frowned and approached more cautiously, giving his mother a confused look. She quietly meowed a 'later' before pushing him towards wherever the others had disappeared. He followed reluctantly, green eyes glancing briefly up at the twoleg before he vanished after them. Golde took a deep breath before following, ignoring the calls of the twoleg above them.

She found herself turning a corner and heading nose first for a small hole. She shoved her head inside, taking a deep whiff of the familiar smell of her sons before forcing her shoulders through and slipping easily into the slightly larger den. Everything was black around her, and if not for her sense of smell she would have assumed that her two sons and the strange she-cat had disappeared off the face of the planet.

"Mom?" came the familiar voice of the smaller tom.

"Yes, Coal?" she said, shifting until she was more comfortable with her back pressed up against the wall instead of the entrance.

"Why are we here? And who's she?"

Golde stopped the she-cat from speaking. "She's Speckle," she said, firmly, and praying to whatever powers-that-be that Speckle wouldn't spill the news about her mother. "She's been here ever since the last house cats were here."

"Did she ever see what happened to the other cats here?" Coal asked curiously.

"No," said Golde, cutting Speckle off. She glanced at the ceiling, praying for strength, before turning to her biggest son. "I believe I owe you both an explanation." She paused, shifting her paws uncomfortably in the dirt. "I've decided we won't stay here any longer."

"What are you saying?" said her largest son.

"I'm saying we are leaving."

"Now?" He sounded amazed.

"But the Redhouse is our life!" exclaimed Coal. "It's all we know - it's all _you_ know. We can't live in the wild!"

She flinched at that accusation. "I'm not saying we will," she cautioned. "But if necessary - yes, we can. I don't know where we will go, but it's much better than this place."

"But this is our home!"

Golde sighed. "I know, Coal."

Silence fell over the four cats. They would be fine in the wild, Golde told herself, though she didn't believe she would be. She had never been in the forest and she was a house cat at heart, no matter what she might or what might change. But she would step out of her comfort zone if it meant saving her kits.

"We should leave as soon as we can," she murmured, her voice sounding loud in her own ears. "Find a spot in the forest that's near a human place, and maybe try to catch some house mice."

"Or maybe we can talk to the red cat," said the dark grey tom.

"'Red cat'?" Golde echoed.

"It's a fox he saw in the wild," said Coal, dismissively.

Golde ignored him. "Feral?"

"There was a big red tom in the woods yesterday, watching us play fight," said Feral, then he said proudly. "I _smelled_ him."

Golde blinked. A cat in the wild? Must have been a wildcat, and if there was anything she knew about wild cats is that they were often territorial and unfriendly. But, if it was a tom she might be able to convince him to - no. He wouldn't help her kits, simply because they weren't his. Even then, she might be able to get some information about the territory from him. "When did you see him?" she asked.

"Earlier today," said Feral.

She nodded to herself. "We'll stay here for the rest of tonight, until that twoleg goes away. Then, before sun-up, we'll leave for the forest and hopefully track his scent."

"We won't be able to do that," said Coal. "The dark trail's monsters usually cover up any scent down that ways." Then, he grudgingly admitted. "I did smell monster stuff where Feral thought he smelled the tom."

"Thought nothing! I smelled him fair and square. You're just upset because, for once, you didn't smell it first!" Feral said proudly.

"Yeah right!"

" _Boys,_ " Golde purred. "Settle down. We're going to catch as much sleep as we can now." She paused. "Speckle?"

"Yeah?" The she-cat gave a start at being addressed, probably having been stuck in her own daymares of her mother and brother's disappearance. That made Golde wince slightly and she silently promised to get that kit's mind off things.

"Have you seen the red cat before?"

"No."

"Oh." Golde struggled to find words, something that make up for her momentary forgetfulness and erase that dejected tone from her lips. "Will you come with us?"

"Yeah, okay."

…

She had never been to the Redhouse before.

She knew the general direction toward the Redhouse, passed the place she had given birth to her three stillborn toms. She winced painfully at the visual reminder, but pushed those thoughts aside as she sniffed out her mate's scent trail. She followed it away from the lean-to and northward, creeping up the hilly lands and pausing to sniff out a hollow stump. A damp smell had fallen over everything, something which grey more prominent as she continued walking. She stumbled into a puddle on the way there, and she shook the dirty water out of her fur with a slight sneer of disgust. The days where she worried over her looks had passed, but that didn't mean she liked the squishy feeling beneath her paws.

It took her a while to notice the sudden change in the forest, the stillness, like the calm before the storm. A thunderous roar had started to build at the edge of her hearing, and it caused her to pause and listen, frozen near a small puddle of rippling water. As she stared at the water's surface and listened to the building roar, she felt the ground begin to shake beneath her paws.

It happened suddenly. The roar came to a peak, a cacophony of sound, and then a great yellow flash flew by in front of her. Air sucked up behind a passing monster slammed into the bony fingers of tree branches seconds after its passage, causing the entire forest to whip around angrily at its passage. Her eyes grew huge as she watched the trees come alive in a few seconds of wrathful flailing, before the forest became still again. The stillness had returned; the sound of a snake before it struck.

Swallowing hard, Silver crept up toward the thunderpath, and she immediately felt the difference of the world around her as the forest opened into a slight tunnel before returning to forest again. She had heard about the thunderpath from Tiger, that day so long ago when he burst through the cabin door and declared she was never going back to the Redhouse. She vaguely remembered crossing it on a day so long ago that she had almost forgotten it, when the sun was filtered through the dark clouds and she could see the whiskers on her own nose. She threw out a paw to touch the black path and recoiled at it's hot surface. Grimacing, she forced herself to put her weight on it's surface and she took her first few steps across it. At what she judged to be the center, the surface of the black path was cooler. She kept walking, almost jogging, when she felt the world tremble again.

A yellow light suddenly appeared on the horizon. Her heart jumped into her throat, her fur stood on end, and instantly her paws thudded onto dusty ground. She flattened herself to ground as the roar became audible. Her world was turned into bright blinding lights, roaring monsters, and tearing winds, before it returned to blackness. Her vision was splotchy from the sudden light and she found herself stumbling away, emotions having temporarily drained her of strength. She found a bush, bony and leafless, and hid underneath it, body tense and shaking as yet another monster flew by. It was far enough away that the small panicked part of her mind declared herself safe and, in seconds, she had passed out beneath the bush.

A gentle stirring of cold winds woke her back up again, just as the new rays of dawn had begun to appear on the horizon. Silver took a moment to adjust to her strange surroundings, before she remembered her mission and crawled out of the bush. She nosed about in the semi-darkness, scenting for her mate's faded smells and letting her paws find his large prints as she followed his pawsteps away from the thunderpath. She paused once or twice when she thought she heard something moving in the forest around her, but she dismissed it when she reached the Redhouse. It's red brick structure contrasted so deeply with the cabin's wooden planks that she almost dismissed it as the walls of some large cliff. Only when she finally made it to the edge of the fence and was able to get a better view of the building did she finally recognize the structure from her youth.

It was alien to her; she was so used to the greyish-brown wood of the cabin and the sea of dead leaves. She could have sworn she'd never seen the building before in her whole life, but as she neared it and climbed the fence, she recognized the dusty yard which had contained her for most of her young life. She looked over the large area and would have dropped down into the yard if something hadn't caught her attention first. Something moved in the forest behind her and suddenly bounded up the fence to join her, tough muscles and bony flanks heaving. Silver's eyes widen in shock as she took in the frail figure of Destiny.

"What are you doing here?"

The brown-and-white she-cat shook her head, having not yet caught her breath, and dropped down into the yard, thudding painfully into the ground. She trotted forward, aiming for a dark shadow beneath the patio. Angry, ear's flat, Silver shot after her, her paws thudding on the dusty earth as she followed her adopted mother into the dark. They halted at the entrance and turned back, eyes peering through the wood floor boards to the silent red building above them.

"Why did you come here?" Silver asked, looking away from the building for a moment.

"What's got your fur ruffled, kit?" rasped Destiny, still slightly breathless. "You think you're the only one who cares about kits?"

Silver flinched. "No," she meowed, glaring at her.

Destiny flicked her ears. "Oh? Then what's the problem?"

Silver glared harder. "You won't understand."

"Really? And here I thought I knew myself better than you."

Silver snarled, lips curling. "I shouldn't have to explain myself to you."

"That's funny," the old queen growled. "Just a moment ago you were asking me to explain _myself_ to _you_." Destiny glared. "Or do you think yourself an exception to this rule?"

"Are you calling me selfish?"

"I haven't called you anything, yet."

"Oh, then what would you call me?"

"Arrogant. And stupid."

"Really?"

"Yes."

If they were back at the cabin, Silver would have stood up and walked away right then. She didn't have to listen to this. But she wasn't at the cabin and her own sense of duty to the kits prevented her from doing much more than shut out Destiny's voice, a task which was easier said than done.

"You were stupid for coming out here alone. Especially when you knew there was more than one kit."

Silver flinched slightly at the accusation, but her lips formed a stubborn line and she remained rooted to the spot, ears swiveling around and desperately trying to listen to anything else - like cats inside the Redhouse - besides her mother.

"You were arrogant to think that you were the only person in the world who has suffered the loss of her kits."

Silver rolled her eyes, her own pride goading her to answer. "Oh really? Did Dapples or Lion ever die on you?"

"Dawn did."

It wasn't the words that made Silver bite back a retort, but the emotions. It caused her to look at her adopted mother in a new light. A sadness had flooded her eyes as she stared down at her paws.

"All I've ever wanted was for my kits to be free. Free and safe from the twolegs, from the accursed rain, from my own pain." Pain filled her voice, echoing Silver's own desolation at the loss of her kits. "I wanted everything for my kits, for them to have a perfect life, something which I never had. But when I came back from hunting, I found Dawn drowned in a puddle of rain. My kits, they didn't understand what had happened, didn't understand the danger. I knew I would have to move them in order to save them. I was afraid if I did move that it would kill them, like it had killed my brothers and sisters, but I knew I couldn't leave them there. I would have kept going, beyond the Cabin, further south, but I was afraid they wouldn't survive the trip. We had to stop." She looked pained. "A mother will do anything for kits, just to see them grow up, old and happy. Tiger, Lion, Dawn and Dapples were the only litter I've ever had. They mean the world to me. And a part of me hopes that adopting more kits would make up for all the opportunities I lost, opportunities I could have used to have more litters. Now, I don't think I'll ever get the chance."

"What does this have to do with anything?" Silver snapped.

Destiny stared at her, a strange softness in her eyes. "You aren't alone, Silver. You are never alone."

Silver stared back, speechless. They sat in silence, staring out over the yard, listening to the sounds of the Redhouse. Suddenly, Destiny stood up turned around, fur bristling.

"Who's there?"


	9. Part 9

Speckle shivered as the cold, hostile and unfamiliar wind blew against her body, almost sending her hurtling over the edge of the cliff. Her heart pounded as she tried to back up, but she was rooted to the spot, with that cold wind blowing around her, carrying with it the scents of smoke and ash. She wanted to cry out but the wind blew her words away, forcing her battered ears and eyes to watch and listen in absolute silence.

 _Could I die in a dream?_ she wondered, but her thoughts had drifted far away, like wispy clouds in the dream scape around her and that question disappeared into a sea of chaos. Her mind was not her own; just as it was every night. Dreams were harmless, she consoled herself, and this one was no exception. She just needed to sit back and enjoy the ride, however non-enchanting it really was.

She gagged at the sudden smokey smell, feeling the tainted winds buffet her fur. The wind carried the sounds of cats crying out around her and she found herself staring down, down, down, into where the world split in two. On one side grew a whole forest of twoleg dens, and the other was filled with the familiar forest surrounding her home; green leaves on one side and dapples leaves of orange, yellow and brown on the other, as future and past collided into one quilted image. And far off into the center of the sickly leaves, a column of smoke rose high into the sky, it's base glowing an angry red. Dancing flames licked hungrily at dry leaves, embers were carried away by winds, until soon one side consumed the other.

Then, she saw the cats.

They raced out of the brambles, their fur spiked up and wet with sweet, eyes wide in fear and jowls dripping in foamy saliva, as they fled from the twoleg forest and towards the river, far away from the burning dappled woods. Among them was a burning bright reddish-orange cat. His pelt burned and danced, reflecting the bright flames burning on the other side of the split world, and hanging from his jaws was a tangle of brambles, bundled into the form of a cat with extra thorny claws.

" _But only fire can save the Clan_."

Smoke billowed up from the scarring forest as acrid smell of the burning forest surrounded her, consuming her, enveloping her in a cloud of ash and smog, drowning her. She yowled, clawing the air around her, choking on the smokey smells and shrieking silently in terror. She couldn't move; invisible branches had tangled around her paws and lifted her partially off the ground, forcing her to witness the spectacle of the dying and re-dying world before her. Smoke began to obscure her vision of the bright red flames that reflected on their dark bellies, and - just as the world around began to turn black - her paws lashed out and struck cat, causing a pained and painful yowl to echo loudly in the enclosed space of her humble den.

"OUCH!" yelped Feral.

Speckled winced. "Sorry."

The yowl had woken up the others and earned a tired and unconcerned yawn from Coal.

"Don't apologize, Speckle," the invisible tom meowed. "Feral can handle worse."

Not liking his brother's amused tone, Feral uttered an irritated growl, "Is it morning yet?"

"I don't know," meowed their mother. "Feral, you and your brother stay here. Speckle, come with me."

Speckle flinched as she was singled out but, seeing that she didn't have much room to argue with the queen and not wanting to stick around the injured Feral, she obeyed, ducking down and scrambling out of the small den. Golde slipped out behind her, her pale yellow eyes gleaming in the pale morning light and gleaming with thousands of churning thoughts. She looked around, checking for the twoleg through the wooden planks and sniffing lightly at the air, before allowing her fur to flatten slightly.

"We should be safe here for a while," she meowed to Speckle. "At least until we can decide what to do next."

Speckle nodded mutely, not even trying to point out that it had served to protect her for more than a moon, but she realized that she didn't want to say anything that might insult her - especially if it might tarnish whatever small flake of friendship they had managed to form yesterday. If Golde didn't like her, she would most likely leave and take the two kits with her, and Speckle could not bear the thought of being along again.

"Come on," Golde meowed, gesturing towards the tunnel to the entrance. "We need to survey the territory and maybe find a scent of that tom."

The younger she-cat nodded and followed, bumping into the grey tabby pelt when the queen came to an abrupt halt. Before the young she-cat could ask anything, she suddenly heard a stranger meow.

"Who's there?"

…

The fresh cold morning caused a strange bitter wind to stir the stiff and stifling air inside the Cabin, rattling the windows and waking Dapples, one of the few cats who never went out during morning and night hunting patrols. She sniffed around her makeshift den - a small hole tucked away between the roots of the Moon Tree - her ears perked and her nose shoved forward for the familiar sounds and smells of prey. Much of the moondust had been cleared around the den entrance, allowing some squirrel and cat scent to cling to the tree's roots. In hindsight, moving the dust hadn't been such a good idea; the smell of prey always made her hungry in the morning her own scent lingered on the roots, warding off prey. But Dapples had been a lot younger when she had come up with that idea and she hadn't been as wise as she was now.

She dropped lightly down to the dust covered floor and drank from the nearest puddle of untainted water, licking her lips of the sweet drops. A taste lingered in her mouth and she frowned to herself. Perhaps not "untainted" anymore.

This was slightly worrying. If their water supply could not survive the four months they had decided to stay, then how could they stay all those months? They would be forced to leave early and they would need a place to stay temporarily.

Her thoughts drifted to Raven and his strange dream. Could the Starcats have predicted this? Could Raven be the one to send out to scout a new temporary home? It seemed impossible but so had those nights in the Moon Clearing, and she knew for a fact that they had happened.

She would talk to Raven about his dream later, she decided, giving herself a firm nod and a thorough wash. Licking up a last few precious water drops, she padded silently across the moondust and paused only a second before disappearing sheer darkness opened up like an great pit before her, like the darkness between the stars in a clear night sky, and more than once Dapples got the sense of walking on air.

She had grown used to the feeling thanks to her many walks to the Moon Clearing and she skillfully used her whiskers to navigate her way to the Cabin. The moment she emerged, she took a long sniff of the air; after only a few moments in the tunnel, one quickly forget what the world actually smelled like. The scents also told her that Raven, and also Hearth, hadn't returned form his night patrol. That meant that she, Blaze, Destiny, Silver, Lion and Tiger were the only ones left at home.

The healer cat sighed, her paws leading her towards the familiar route towards Destiny's den, also known as the queen's den. She only scented Blaze with her milk scent and her kit's smell. Dapples couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed, having hoped Destiny to be there. Instead of rudely walking away from the den, Dapples nosed her way inside and greeted Blaze with a warm meow.

"Good morning, Blaze. Have you seen Destiny?"

The soft piles of moondust beneath their feet made it impossible to determine if Destiny had even been there at all.

"Morning, Spots," Blaze purred cheerfully in her rough manner. "No, I haven't. Sorry." She flicked her ears in apology but instantly brightened again. "Hey, have you heard the news yet?"

Dapples blinked at both the happy tone of the queen and the use of her kitty name. "No, I haven't," she answered carefully. "What's the news?"

"Lion finally got around to naming our kits!"

"Really?" She knew Lion had been avoiding naming the kits ever since the they had been born, much to Dapples' bafflement. She had never gotten around to asking him why.

Blaze purred, pleased that Dapples had asked. "Fire, Dawn, and Whitepaw!"

Dapples flinched slightly, and was glad Blaze couldn't see her in the low light. "They sound beautiful," she purred, forcing the discomfort carefully kept out of her voice.

"I know," Blaze purred loudly and proudly. "Three beautiful names for three beautiful kits!"

Dapples forced herself to purr, but she was far from pleased that Lion had used Dawn's name for his kit. She tried and failed to put those feelings aside and it made her more than uncomfortable to have these thoughts in the presence of the happy queen.

"Can you tell me where Destiny is?" she finally blurted, a vague thought informing her that she was being rude, but she didn't really care at that moment. She was feeling uncomfortable near the happy she-cat.

"No, she was up before me," said Blaze, thoughtfully. "Why do you ask? Haven't you seen her?"

"Not since last night."

"That's strange," the red she-cat murmured, shaking her head slowly to clear her thoughts. "But she shouldn't be far. She's old."

"I know." For some reason, Blaze's words did not comfort her. A feeling of unease had settled into her stomach as the she-cat said that last statement. It almost seemed as if every conversation about Destiny ended with a shrug and a "she's old" comment. It had been building up for days and today she sensed something was going to happen and she believed her mother was at the center of it. "I should go find her then."

"Good luck," Blaze meowed.

Dapples nodded grimly, but she realized Blaze could not see her in the darkness of the queen's den, before she grunted in acknowledgement and trotted out. The sunlight filtered through the dark clouds and fell through the warped windows, illuminating her path towards the cat door. If Destiny wasn't at the Cabin and if Destiny wasn't at the Moon Tree, that meant that Destiny had gone out with Raven that night for some reason or another Dapples wasn't aware of. With that thought firmly in mind, the she-cat slipped out of the cat door and trotted off towards where she hoped the night patrol had gone, but stopped. Dapples knew that Destiny wouldn't have gone on a night patrol with Raven; she would have stayed close at home where she would be close at paw if something went wrong. With Lion missing, it was more likely Destiny would be even close to home, but that didn't tell her where Destiny had gone.

She sniffed carefully around the front of the Cabin, detecting the barest whiff of her mother. She trotted after it at a leisurely pace, following the faint trail deeper and deeper into the forest. She grew slightly uncomfortable when she reached the short and steep slope overlooking the lean-to. Her fur prickled uncomfortably as she recognized the small beat up building from her brother's stories. And if she was right, the Redhouse should be further...

She paused and sniffed the ground carefully, her fur spiking up even more as she moved, panic causing her paws to quicken, until she was soon racing full pelt through the forest, the scent becoming distinctly stronger and stronger as she neared the dreaded destination. Something rumbled inside the layers of forest beyond, but she heard none of it over the pounding of blood within her ears and the thoughts whirling in her head.

Could everything she heard about her mother be true? Had she lost the last of her sanity to the affects of old age?

…

At that moment, the old queen stood blocking the exit beneath the patio, claws unsheathed and fur fluffed up, appearing twice her normal size and effectively intimidating Golde. Hard pale blue eyes stared into startled pale yellow.

"Answer me," Destiny growled.

The house cat worked her mouth in an attempt to spit out words, but Speckle beat her to it.

"Are you friends of the red tom?" she asked, innocently.

The question caught both of the wild she-cats by surprise, but Silver quickly salvaged the situation, appearing as the 'good cop' to Destiny's 'bad cop' attitude. Besides, she was slightly worried that the old queen might end up punishing them as she had done Silver after she had gotten into the forest.

"Yes," purred Silver silkily, thanking her long years of playing mother to her three kittenhood friends. "He is my mate and a very sweet tom. He told us about you." It was a little white lie, one that probably wouldn't make the situation any worse than right now.

The dark she-cat nodded. "He sounds nice."

"Well?" interrupted Destiny, her question directed at Golde. Silver blinked at her briskness, reminded of their first encounter. _What did she have to act that way?_ she wondered minutely before mentally shaking the thought aside. _She's an old fleabag_ , she told herself, _and nothing more_.

"M-my name is Golde," the young queen stammered out, her initial shock have bleed away slightly. She glanced to the younger she-cat beside her, as if remembering her, and gestured at her. "This is Speckle."

"Hello, Speckle," Silver purred, feeling rather than seeing Destiny's fur relaxing beside her. The tension in the air seem to deflate as the old queen deflated. Silver felt relieved, which surprised her, but she pushed that feeling aside as well, putting on her motherly charm as she smiled warmly at the two she-cats. "Hello, Golde," she meowed. "Are you the only ones here?"

Golde hesitated, but she didn't have to say anything; Speckle beat her to it. "Oh no, there are two tom kits here two. Would you like to meet them?"

Destiny's fur spiked slightly as she turned her hard pale moon eyes onto Speckle, causing the young she-cat to squirm, but the old cat's expression was unreadable, her eyes narrowed. Silver ignored the old queen and took a step toward Golde, keeping her voice soft and her expression friendly. "Would you like to show us to your kits?"

Golde hesitated once more, conflicted, before giving Speckle a pointed look and sending the two wild cats a short nod of her head. "Sure, but first. What are _your_ names?"

Silver's shoulder fur prickled. She had all but forgotten her own introductions and realized belatedly how rude that must seem to Golde. She gave another charming smile. "Of course, my name is Silver." Then she flicked her tail tip in somewhat annoyance toward the oldest. "And this is Destiny. The red tom's - _Tiger's_ \- mother."

The grey tabby queen gave a slow uncertain nod at Destiny, but the old cat stared coolly back. Unnerved, Golde ducked back down, briefly glancing at the freedom behind the two wild cats, and that fleeting moment of longing caused Silver to shift uncomfortably, conscious pricked. They were blocking the way out. Immediately, Silver sought Speckle's gaze, but if the young she-cat was at all uncomfortable with her escape route blocked, she didn't show it. She was instead quite happy to let these strangers into her abode, and that expression confused Silver. She didn't dwell and simply pushed her way ahead of Destiny, following Golde and Speckle as they disappeared into the den. She heard the faint murmurings of young cats within, but didn't comment on it; she would see them soon enough. As the four she-cats crowded into the den, it became obvious that the little den hadn't even been big enough for the two young toms and the other she-cats. Silver winced at the cramped space, but satisfied herself with licking her chest fur. It was dark in here, but she wasn't bothered by that; the tunnels were _much_ scarier, like an abyss, and this was nothing more than a couple of fuzzy dark clouds hanging on the edge of her vision. Even the walls were warmer and dryer.

"This place... is small," Destiny commented dryly.

Silver flicked her ear in irritation, but chose to ignore the old queen in the presence of the other cats. "I'm sure they would like a larger dwelling," she meowed in response. "Golde?"

"Yes?"

"Did you meet Tiger when he came here?"

"The big red tom?" one of the young toms asked curiously and somewhat awed, drawing the attention of Destiny.

"Yes," she purred in amusement. Then, she continued, sounding somewhat mischievous and mysterious. "Would you two toms like to come outside with me? It would be a lot roomier and I can tell you a lot of secret stories about Tiger."

"Sure!" said one. "Okay, but Mom...?" said the other.

Golde sighed, sounding uncomfortable and pressed up in a corner. "Okay," she relented, but worry in her voice.

"Speckle," said Silver, shifting in the darkness to move away from them. "Why don't you go with them? I'm sure Destiny could use some help watching the kits."

"Sure!" Speckle exploded, rumbling in a loud purr as she headed toward the entrance.

In a short while, Silver and Golde were alone. The house cat shifted uncomfortably in the darkness, but Silver could hardly bring herself to be annoyed. She tried to think back to when she was at the Redhouse, when she was younger, but it was all a fuzzy memory. She could recall nothing useful. She was forced to come up with words, question, something that she could work with in order to talk to Golde.

It was an almost fruitless endeavor; nothing came to mind. Before long, the silence made Golde shift uncomfortably again. Silver stared at the darkness, before suddenly an idea came to her.

"Do you like it here?"

"What?" she asked, startled, and Silver could picture her blinking in the darkness. "Oh, not really," she admitted.

"Oh?" Silver asked, voice gentled. "Why's that?"

She heard the queen scrape one of her paws across the dirt floor. "Oh, just a feeling."

Her blue eyes narrowed. "A feeling?"

"Uh-huh," she responded, and in Silver's mind eye she saw her bob her head in a nod. How could House Cats be so timid?

"What kind of feeling?"

"Oh, well, it's not something I can easily describe in words," she explained. "I guess you could say its behavior was off."

Silver refrained from snorting, reminding herself that this she-cat probably had a life before coming to the Redhouse, like her own mother had. She suddenly perked up; maybe this she-cat could tell her what happened to her parent. She was about to ask when something at the front of the den distracted her. She sniffed the air and knew the she-cat smell must be from Speckle.

"Yes, Speckle, what do you need?" she asked politely.

"Uhm, Destiny wanted to see you."

Silver refrained from a huffing sigh but nodded, before realizing that Speckle couldn't see her. "Thank you," she meowed, turning back to Golde. "If you really believe the twoleg is bad, I can promise your safety. Come live with us in the forest; we have enough water and prey to last us through the worst of leaf-bare and, most importantly, we have no twolegs to worry about."

She didn't wait for a response, simply gently pushing passed the young she-cat. She padded out of the dark patio and glanced around, with Destiny nowhere in sight. A soft hiss caught her attention, drawing her towards a crack at the bottom of the fence. A young black face stared back at her, before quickly disappearing and she heard the soft meows of the two toms as their paws shuffled in the dirt. She approached the spot and realized very quickly that there was no way for her to get through; she was far too big. She leaped up to the top of the fence and plopped down, landing lightly beside the snarling grey tabby tom. He jumped and backed away, hissing slightly. Silver ignored him, eyes locked on Destiny as she approached.

"What happened?" she asked, cautiously.

The brown-and-white she-cat shook her head and gestured with her tail toward the front of the Redhouse and when Silver followed her gaze she noticed a rocky area around the front of the nest, colored a strange orange and filled with round pebbles and empty of anything. She gazed questioningly at Destiny.

"What is it?" she asked, tersely.

"The human is out right now," Destiny explained, "and she's taken the Monster with her."

"So?" she responded, feeling as if she was completely missing the point.

Destiny eyes sparkled slightly for a moment with an emotion Silver understood easily; anger, and it disappeared quickly. "It means," said Destiny, "that now is the best time to leave. If we wait too long, she will have returned and there will be more monsters on the Thunderpath."

Silver's eyes narrowed, but she saw no reason to argue. "I see," she meowed, gazing down her nose at the missing monster. Her mind momentarily went elsewhere as she thought of Golde.

"It's going to be difficult convincing her to come," Silver meowed thoughtfully.

The old queen snorted. "That's going to be easier than you think."

Silver squinted slightly at the old queen. "Oh?"

Destiny nodded, turning her direction toward the two tom kits. Coal blinked slowly in response, but Feral grinned gleefully in anticipation.

Destiny looked slyly at Silver, but there was no smile on her face, projecting just how serious this situation was and just exactly what she was planning to do. Her eyes were on the thunderpath and the grey-and-white she-cat felt an odd prickling in her fur as she slowly turned her gaze back to where they had come from.

"One of us will go across first with the black kit," the old queen meowed. "And the sooner the better."

All Silver could do in response was with a nod, unable to believe what Destiny was getting at.

…

She frowned in concentration as she was forced to backtrack yet again. She could hear the thunderpath on the other side of the wall of thin branches, but the thick wall of bushes were proving to be more difficult than she thought. She clawed the earth up beneath one of the bristling bush skeletons, her worry and growing panic causing her to miss the most obvious. She clawed at the bush in frustration, but stopped with a huff and pulled herself back.

She was along for the ride again, Spottedkit mused. She felt the strong pull of Dapples as she forced herself flat and forward, wiggling beneath the scratchy branches and through the thick line of bushes to the other side. She glanced around, growling in frustration as she realized that yet another wall of skeleton flora stood between her and the thunderpath; the dark black trail like a second horizon line in her sight. She pushed forward again, frowning to herself as she surveyed the line of bushes. It was thinner here than the wall behind her.

A break in the line of bushes gave a little relief from her earlier struggle and she soon found herself standing just below the thunderpath. The pebbly area around the thunderpath and beneath it created a slightly steep slope which she had to climb over. She jumped up, squinting across the black path to the other side of the forest and looking for signs of the Redhouse nearby. When she didn't see anything immediately across, she slowly scoured the tree tops to her left and then her right until she spotted the sparse treeline. A second thunderpath branched off from the darker first, slightly orange in the glowing sunlight. She immediately padded towards it, careful to not cross the thunderpath anymore than she already had. It's black, pebbly surface felt strange and slightly slick under paw and if she wasn't so focused on her goal, she might have grimaced in disgust or at least gotten down off it. She didn't particular care about it, eyes searching for any signs of her mother and sister-in-law across the path.

She halted when the whole Redhouse came into full view, marveling at the strange rectangular and red stones which made up its brick surface. A white section of the face was half rolled up, looking for all the world like a lip curled in a angry snarl. She didn't approach, instead she forced herself forward again, drifting out toward the center as she peered across, and when the world beneath suddenly began trembling, she froze, her fluttering heart in her throat. Her heard swiveled around, and she watched with horror as a giant monster, pale pasty skin glisten oddly in the sunlight, roaring toward her, evil angry eyes glaring straight at her.

She jumped as it squealed loudly, and she instant shot off the path, seconds before it whisked by, sending her head over heels with its backwind. She crouched beneath the lip of the thunderpath, breathless, shocked, staring up at the seemingly harmless black path. Even as she began walking again, Spottedkit felt the phantom presence of a heart in her throat, long after Dapples' had slowed down. She wondered briefly if she could die here, but that thought was quickly brushed aside as Dapples peered up over the thunderpath, careful to keep her paws off the dark path. She peered across the black surface and picked out the soft grey pelt of her sister-in-law, along with four other cats. A young dark grey tabby, an equally young black kit, a slightly older grey she-cat with darker flecks in her fur, and the familiar brown and white of her mother. She felt Dapples wince as she looked over her mothers bony back, arched almost painfully as Destiny padded to the edge of the thunderpath. She opened her mouth to yowl across but halted when she realized that they weren't paying any attention to her and for very good reason.

Silver stood on the edge of the thunderpath, her eyes peering down the thunderpath on both sides. The black kit poked his head out from between her front legs, following her gaze down the thunderpath. At this distance, Spottedkit couldn't be sure if Silver noticed the black kit as she looked down the other direction. After another long moment, she leaned down and gently picked the black kit up by his scruff, before lifting him high so his tail did not drag, and raced across the thunderpath. The black kit didn't protest, eyes wide, as he was bumped up against Silver's chest, before her was deposited on this side of the thunderpath. Even then, Silver didn't notice her, licking the small kit - a tom by the smell, she noted - and flattening his fur. They crouched down, waiting, and Spottedkit's gaze was drawn to the others.

The young she-cat, slightly smaller the Destiny, picked up the fussy and wiggling dark grey tabby kit - another tom, she noted - and she struggled to lift him up so his tail didn't touch the ground. Destiny stepped forward to give the tom a warning nip, though she never touched the kit, and he immediately stopped struggling, almost pouting in the young she-cats grasp. Slowly, painfully slow, she raced across the thunderpath.

Then, multiple things happened at once.

The young she-cat made it safely across the thunderpath, depositing her kit beside his brother; Destiny stretched her spine painfully in order to place her paws on the thunderpath, but she paused and gazed over at the other cats, a glimmer of contentment gleaming in her motherly pale blue eyes; a monster hurtled down the road with no intention of stopping, yellow eyes narrowed and gleaming, catching the old queen in its stunning blinding light. A lythe, grey tabby darted forward toward the thunderpath, but as Spottedkit watched, she got the faint echo of Dapples' realization that she wasn't going to make it into time to save the old queen. Spottedkit felt Dapples lurch forward, too little, too late.

The monster roared down the thunderpath and struck her, flinging the brown and white she-cat across the thunderpath and sending her sailing farther away from Dapples and into the bushes, never to rise again.

A despaired wailing filled the air as Dapples exploded forward, and Spottedkit knew no more as her dream finally came to its inevitable end.


End file.
